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

Unfortunately for Connie, the trailer that she's decided to skulk around belongs to none other than Lapis and Peridot. To be fair, that means that there's a lot of... interesting things around it. A Smaller-Than-Average-Lake, a fountain that's glitzed out with glitter and christmas bobbles, and just a bunch of junk stacked up in weird ways.

Also, there's a mermaid skeleton with a sword sticking through it right there, right on the front lawn, next to the Smaller-Than-Average-Lake.

"What are you doing?" Comes a distinctly displeased voice from somewhere behind Connie. And from somewhere to her right, a gentle, soft sounding "Draa" sounds. There also seems to be a suspicious length of blue and white... something sticking out of under a pile of junk in that same area too.

And Lapis, for a change, isn't hiding her changes. She's way too tired for that.

Connie is surprised enough that the magnifying glass slips out of her grasp and she flounders a bit trying to grab it before just totally dropping it. It hits the ground hard enough that a y-shaped crack splinters the glass, although it otherwise stays in its metal container.

"Nothing!" She winces at the cracked glass. She took that from Steven's performance collection, how was she gonna replace it?

"Wait, Lapis?" she turns around finally recognizing the voice, and then, largely, recognizing the gem. Her changes aren't actually as significant as Steven's. Pretty cool, actually.

"That's me." Lapis just raises a quizzical eyebrow at Connie. "And you're snooping around my trailer." This time, she crosses her arms, and Lapis looks about as friendly as she always does when the person isn't Steven or Peridot.

The blue and white thing shuffles from under the pile, and makes a noise again.

"Did you... forget me?" Again?

"It's Connie. We spent like, a weekend together. We fixed Steve's Dad's carwash sign?" After they broke it.

"No, I know exactly who you are. I almost drowned you." Lapis points out with a swish of her tail. "And we never spent any time together. Definitely not a weekend, and none of that happened either." She knows. She'd remember it. That's for certain.

Ow.

But, they were the New Crystal Gems? That's not just forgetting, right? Was it magic? Did she have amnesia?

How do you proceed in a conversation where a very important and formative part of your relationship never happened? She couldn't just forget that! She thought they were friends?

"I-I just got here, sort of. Before the hunt. I moved in with Steven..."

"Let me guess: You were at that stupid ball." Lapis doesn't really care about that hunt, but she does know a good portion of what went on at the ball. Mostly because she'd very, very vehemently tried to get Peridot to leave with her, and she didn't, and just as she predicted, disaster happened.

Maybe next time??? Peridot will actually listen to her when she says that they need to leave.

(We know this doesn't happen.)

"Yeah..." She didn't elaborate because she thought it was pretty obvious that Lapis didn't particularly care, and... well, she's really, truly hurt. And she feels guilty because it's probably not even Lapis' fault.

She needs to... go.

"Well... it was nice... seeing you again."

Wait. What just happened here? Why does Connie look upset? Lapis doesn't think she said anything particularly upsetting!

Maybe if Lapis wasn't already in a particularly foul mood thanks to... Everything that's happened recently, she might be just a smidge more understanding. Right now she's just baffled that Connie seems upset for what she can only fathom is... no reason?

"I guess?" It's definitely better because Lapis didn't attempt to drown her again? "If you're looking for Steven, he's probably down that way." She points towards his trailer. Maybe Steven can fix her being upset? Lapis sure as hell can't.

"Yeah, thanks." She couldn't muster up the energy to explain to Lapis that she'd just finished telling her how she lived there now.

She turns and heads back to the trailer.

⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

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1/2

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im so sorry connie

;_;

8(

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