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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The answer to that question it seems, is, 'yes'. After a second or two of apparently resigning herself to life face first on the ground in the 'Narrow, Low Corridor' area, she's back on her feet and ducking past fire jets to reach the Final Jump.

Which means running, Jumping, and doing a relatively well timed roll-landing. She ends up blowing on her hands a bit after-that stung!!! But better to spread that fall energy than, well. Shatter wee ankles.

The course shuts down, resetting for later. Reira's summoned magician however, along with the rest of her disk summoned things, remain, the former apparently staring toward their 'audience'.

~~That's Kinda Creepy, Film Magician.~~

Yeah, no, Lambert knows all about weak ankles. Tragically, witcher training never did focus on what to do when falling from any considerable height, meaning most of Lambert's training injuries came from unfortunate tumbles.

Nonetheless, as Reira wraps up her circuit and her summoned creatures linger and glance in Lambert's direction, the Nightrider figures he may as well formally make his presence known.

"How many times have you run that?" he calls, from where he's seated, elbows resting on knees. Not that the answer is especially important at the moment; it's just curiosity, at this point. He may not have ever properly met her in person, but he's got a decent memory for faces -- and there were only so many seven-year-olds at the carnival who went missing at the dining tables during their stay in the Manor. It's not hard to guess who this is.

"Ah-" Oh. He's spoken. Reira admittedly didn't expect that voice. Not because of who's speaking, necessarily, but rather who is speaking. A voice she'd heard so many times on the radio, being here, in person, was not a voice she thought she would actually. Well.

Be able to connect to a face. "...On....the 'hard' version, or both?" she asks, mentally counting in her head. She can't really do A Lot of runs before she gets tired and sort of nauseous and has to lie down again-she wasn't dosed with the SAME poison as others, but it was still enough to make her weak and tired if she pushed things too hard.

But she's also been doing this since the day before. "For just this version... ...That was the third one," she notes, looking to her summoned magician as it briefly nods. "....I tried it after the normal version... ....but I still need a lot of monster help, so far...."

In all fairness, that's still only on the parts that were 'height restricted'. She probably should have looked for the customization settings before doing this.

....

"...Why?"

"Haven't seen you around here before, that's all." And he would know: he makes a point of keeping tabs on who's making use of the place, even if he doesn't interact with them directly, and coming here was a regular part of his daily routine before shit happened.

Lambert takes a drag on his cigarette, his gaze shifting from Reira to the strange, humanoid thing beside her. Presumably, that's one of the 'monsters' she's talking about, and there's a touch of curiosity when he gets a proper look at it. However, he's not going to acknowledge it yet, and when he speaks again, the smoke curls away from his lips.

"You're not used to training by yourself, are you?" It's a guess, coupled with what little he knows about her from their previous conversation.

"Oh." That's all she says initially. 'Oh'. After all- "...........Yesterday was the first time I was here ever, so..." So that makes sense, given she's only been running the course between then and now. She does however, frown a little at Lambert's question-mostly due to confusion if anything. "........I don't get to train at all," she eventually says, not seeing any sense in hiding such a matter. "...I wasn't supposed to 'get ready' for things where I came from, I just had to do it, and not make any mistakes."

Which was a bit of a yikes, but anyhow. "And... ....All of the duel monsters things, mom just put in my head, so..." She means this quite literally. "...I think I like being able to train, though. Even if I need some help on adult jumps."

"That's stupid," Lambert answers, matter of fact. He doesn't entirely grasp enough of Reira's explanation, but the details don't matter too much to him. "Making you do things just like that? It's like they wanted you to fail."

That's not even touching on the other shit. Putting information directly into a kid's head? What's the point? Nonetheless, he'll continue on.

"What are you trying to train for?"

"...The soldiers, I guess. ....They could find someone else if I failed." But she didn't let herself fail, she thinks, before continuing-

"....Mom though... ....She made sure I knew everything for Dueling. That's what the machine was for." Which is perhaps a bit more ominous than the last point she noted. Better to focus on the present, which is happier even through her tone.

"Um! ....Even though I'm not allowed to work with the thieves, I still want to be able to do better next time things happen... ...I won't do anything that means breaking rules again, but a lot of people here got hurt and had to fight even without that, right? ....So...." She looks back to the course. ".........So if I'm better at things like that, then I won't become something that gets used against people. ....People won't get in trouble because they got worried about me, that time."

Ah, right. Childermass had mentioned that something about that to him recently. Uncontrolled empathy making for an unreliable thief. The reminder brings a prick of unease to Lambert's mind (and annoyance at it shortly thereafter) and he frowns, glancing to the course as well.

"Why are you here?" he asks, bluntly. "What did you join the Carnival for?"

Oh? She blinks. "..........Yuuya made a contract to take Zarc out," she starts to explain, blinking. "....Which isn't a bad thing, to want to do-because Zarc destroyed the world once, and he tried to do it again, too-and I took his soul into mine, to keep him from doing those things again. ...If Yuuya didn't make a contract, we'd become a different person, and have to grow up again-so, he would be able to grow up someone who wasn't 'Zarc'," the girl continues, not likely making more sense.

"...The Ringmaster took him out after she brought me here... ...but, I didn't want her to kill Zarc. ...Because when I had Zarc, I could feel his hate become sadness, and I felt him feel sorry for what he did. ....I felt that he didn't want to be those things, anymore. ....So... ...I asked her to give him another chance, and let him become a baby on his own, even if I wouldn't be with him this time. ...That's why I'm here."

.............An important fact does hit her, however.

"Um.... ....Should.... ...I say who Zarc was? ....People get confused about this, a lot, when I try to talk about it..."

Reira would be absolutely correct on that point, because halfway through her explanation (if it can be called one) Lambert's already rubbing at the bridge of his nose. Did she make more sense before he was still tired and recovering from being hunted down, he wonders. No, her report rambled just as much as this. She really isn't good at sticking to only the relevant details -- how'd the soldiers put up with this?

"I don't need to know who Zarc is," he says instead, waving a hand impatiently -- though huh, that's why Yuuya joined the Carnival? More serious a reason than he expected. Maybe he should get a more coherent explanation of that later. She is a seven year old, so there's only so much sense he expects her to make. Anyway--

"Point is, you signed up for a year and a day because there was something that mattered to you, right?"

"Oh, ok." Phew. "...........That's good." The soldiers put up with it because she just Didn't Talk back then.

Doing that would probably mean being dead, see.

It'd probably have helped if someone bothered teaching her to remain concise in the first place, though. "....Um...I guess so. ...It's the first time I've had something that important, I think..."

"Fair enough," Lambert exhales. He'll glance back to the course, frowning.

"So here's a couple of things. First, if you don't know what you're doing -- and you say you've never had to do training before -- you're not going to get any better. Worse, you're just going to train in bad habits that are harder to break later. Second--" He raises his brows at her, questioningly. "--it sounds like you're already better at something else, anyway."

He nods at Film Magician. "You didn't bring this with you in the Manor?"

"....I know how people are supposed to be doing it," she notes, tilting her head. "..........But....Both of these things are connected, anyway. Mom programmed all the dueling things-but she didn't put me on the action field-but I've seen what action duelists do.

"......And what they do is what you have to do through here," she notes, glancing back. "....If you think I'm doing it all wrong though... ...Then do you know who I can ask to tell me how to make it right?" Because really, this is important.

Very important. And speaking of-

She lifts her arm, bringing attention to the relatively thick 'tablet' currently projecting the arm-length blade. "..........It wasn't 'dress code', so they didn't let me keep it with me while there." The manor staff were sort of unfortunately keen on disarming most of them-especially the women that couldn't hide such things in dresses.

They'll come to the thing on her arm later. Lambert gives it a curious look, but the question of who she could ask to train with occupies his attention for a few moments. Lambert thinks about it, considering. He doesn't have much patience, so he's probably not the best candidate here.

"You could ask one of the nightrunners, or someone who does acrobatics. You could start by asking Yuya." Also, Yuya's probably closer to her own height than any of the other candidates, so he may have more ideas there. He's also likely to be unamused she's running the course alone, he suspects -- he seems like the kind of person who cares about that sort of thing, and if Reira hasn't asked for his help already he wonders if she anticipates that.

"Otherwise, come by here when there are other people around, watch how thy do it, and ask them if they'll spot for you afterwards. The important thing's keeping an eye on your own progress." He points a clawed finger at her, raising his brows. "You can't have a good measure of your ability while you're sick, so not much point training now."

"Mnnnnh...." Hmm. She may need a list. Mostly because- "...........I'm pretty sure Yuuya will just say 'I don't need to worry about that'.... ....he wasn't happy when niisama said I'd be on the Lancers team to fight at home..." Even though. Y'know. She ended up the most useful part of the duel team. Oops.

Regardless. "I guess I can ask on the radio though, if you don't know someone else right away... Umn-I can definitely do the other things though! ...Watching, and making sure someone's here, I mean." At least she can figure that much on her own. As for illness- "....It's still fun to do, even right now, though. ...That's okay, right? ....And I'm making sure not to do it so much that I get more sick!"

"As long as you're having fun and not passing out, why not?" Lambert shrugs. That's the extent of medically recommended exercise and token adult reasonableness he has to offer there. If he could exercise himself, he'd probably be doing the same thing, but as it stands, he's likelier to fall off and break his neck. Now that would be a hell of a thing to end up in the medical tent for.

"If you're really serious about it, mix it up when you're feeling better. Doing the same thing again and again only helps when you can do it properly." He nods towards some of the other, simpler exercise equipment meant more for focusing on single skills. "There's only so much strength and speed you can build without giving your body time to repair itself." At least, he amends mentally, without having the benefit of potions that repair those muscles for you. But he still remembers Triss Merigold chewing out the witchers for letting Ciri train that long and hard, and he's not keep on getting a repeat of the experience.

"Ah..." Well, that's a happy sound-or at least, probably happy, given the smile that came with it. It's the sort of permission she didn't really expect to have, even if she's not immediately running to the entrance of the course. After all-

"Umn! Then... ...I'll make sure to find someone to watch, before I go again! Like you said!" Well, at least she can hold onto suggestions in the short term then-long term will have to take some time to prove itself.

"....Thank-you!"

Least she looks like she's in good spirits, now. Of course, if he ends up having to pick her up off the ground because she's worked herself to exhaustion when she shouldn't have, he might have reason to rethink being a little more careful what he tells kids they can do. Lambert waves her off lazily.

"S'fine. Just don't get banged up -- the new medic isn't much of the caring type." Not that Lambert was either, during that extremely brief stint of being a nurse. Oops. "Is that all?" He's not going anywhere anytime fast, but he is considering moving.

The child nods. She'll keep this in mind about the medic-not that she understands why 'caring type' would matter, since a doctor would be a doctor either way...right?

Well. "Umn-yeah. I finished, and now I have to have someone else here so... ...Thank you again," she decides, before moving to leave the grounds.

Until next time, she supposes.

"See you around, Akaba," Lambert calls lazily. She seems driven enough that she'll find her way around here one way or another, supervised or not, but only time will tell. If she can't find anyone else to keep an eye on her, he decides, maybe he'll actually spare a few minutes for it if he sees her practicing again.

But that's all speculative, at this point -- he's already stayed out too long, and now his trailer seems an impossibly long walk away. Time to call for a ride. Lambert reaches for his radio, already filing the encounter away in his mind.

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⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

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