⇨ 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

medical tent, reporting in

[humanhope]

Morgana may not have anything specific to report, per se, but actually reporting in to his new boss (the one he hasn't met, that is) seems like an important enough reason to head to the medical tent. Besides, even though he's checked out most of the Carnival by now, revisiting places that are probably important couldn't hurt.

Of course he doesn't actually know what the Nightrider looks like, but that's alright. He can see if he can figure it out once he gets there. With his small size it's easy to slip in to the tent almost unnoticed, and he peeks around at everyone and everything there...

But wait, he recognizes this guy! He jumps up onto Lambert's bed, sitting at the foot of it and looking him over. He looks like a mess, honestly, but that's not important.

"Hey, I remember you! Looks like you still won't be able to help me with finding any treasure, yet."

[whattaprick]

Lambert's memories of the ball itself can generously be described as 'patchy,' considering he spent most of that in an enchanted haze, but some things definitely stick out in the memory over others.

A talking cat? Definitely one of those. He glances down at Morgana in brief puzzlement when he first steps in -- who let one of those in here? -- before the cat speaks, and he grimaces.

"Damn. So you weren't a hallucination after all." Maybe Morgana's senses can pick it up, perhaps not, but he isn't entirely human, even accounting for the fae changes. "What are you doing here?"

[humanhope]

"Me, a hallucination? Don't make me laugh." Even the idea is ridiculous to him, even though, well. Talking cats aren't really that common. But still, how could anyone assume he's a hallucination??

But anyways there was a question there, too, so he should probably answer it. If cats could shrug, he'd probably do that right about now, but instead he just casually looks around the place before answering. "Well, I came over here to meet the Nightrider! I don't know who he is, but I thought I should introduce myself."

[whattaprick]

"You're right. After everything else, you're the least unbelievable thing around here," Lambert murmurs. Don't mind him, he's just going to rudely reach over to pat one clawed finger squarely on Morgana's forehead, as if to convince himself he's corporeal.

"What's a talking cat want with the Nightrider? If you want to steal treasure, you should be looking for the Acquisitioner."

[humanhope]

"I do want to steal treasure, but I'll have to do that in my spare time. For now it seems the Ringmaster thinks my skills would be more useful as a Scout!" Which is fine by him, honestly, even if a thief would be more accurate. There was still a certain amount of scouting to be done in thieves' work (honestly, most of it was scouting things out), so it made sense to him.

[whattaprick]

"You? A scout?" What on earth about a cat would make the Ringmaster think it makes a good scout ... ? Then again, she'd adopted the cat from Portland without much fuss. She's really got to stop picking up strays like this. Nonetheless, Nightrider's too specific a title for anyone to attempt weaseling their way in by bluffing and the cat knew to find him in the medical tent, so ... must be the real deal. He frowns.

"What can you do?"

[humanhope]

"Are you doubting my abilities? I know all about infiltration, stealth, and gathering intel! Being a stylish phantom thief isn't just about stealing, after all."

None of which are actual abilities or anything, but whatever. He can make do like this, and later on he can see if he can take advantage of the magic here or of the Ringmaster's abilities to get some more skills of his own.

[whattaprick]

"Considering I haven't seen you work? Yeah, I am." Seriously, would he take Lambert at his word if he said he was actually a badass monster hunter? Lambert wouldn't. Still, if it's a lie, it's remarkably consistent, given he was going on about treasure before at the ball...

"What's your proof you're the phantom thief you say you are?"

[humanhope]

Honestly he very well might take Lambert's word, but as it is it's irrelevant. For now though he bristles at the doubt, especially of his claims of being a phantom thief.

"I don't have any proof here... But I am a phantom thief! I even taught the Phantom Thieves everything they know!" Not that something like that would mean anything to people from other worlds...

[whattaprick]

"Might help if you actually told me what a phantom thief is." And here we go, he's rudely ruffling the fur on the top of Morgana's head again.

"And your name, if you're going to be working for me."

[humanhope]

It really is rude, and he shakes his head as his ears go back, but he doesn't complain about it yet - he's too distracted by the actual questions.

"A phantom thief always works with style, to correct wrongs and steal only the best of treasures! They always do the right thing, even if no one else will! And they do it all while being dashing and cunning, of course."

It seems he got a little carried away with that explanation, the other question forgotten entirely.

[whattaprick]

As the cat goes on, Lambert's brows just raise higher, and he doesn't bother trying to suppress the snicker that slips out when Morgana finally finishes.

"You'd better not be expecting much of that here. If you're looking for style, you should have signed on to be a performer."

[humanhope]

"Well, it's not only about style! It's about treasure too, and to get that you have to carefully analyze the situation and scout out the area, to find what you need. You know, gathering intel and exploring and figuring out where everything is and how the place works!" So who knows how that actually aligns with being a scout, but it's not like he can really be a performer without any magical abilities or anything. Being a thief might be preferable but he's okay with being a scout too. He thinks.

"Anyway, it's not like I had a choice if I wanted to get away from that Prince guy!"

[whattaprick]

"There are worse reasons to join." Yeah, that's just going to get a shrug. Even if Lambert's not convinced he has the skills to back up his talk, at the very least he makes a good effort at sounding like he knows what he's talking about. And something as innocuous as a cat is easily overlooked ... if it knows how to keep its damn mouth shut.

So fine. He doesn't have the time or energy to keep questioning the cat right now, so he'll skip the grilling and proceed directly to introductions.

"I'm the Nightrider." He raises his brows. "Name's Lambert. You still haven't told me yours. Seems like that'd be kind of important, if you'll be working for me now."

[humanhope]

"You're the Nightrider?" It honestly shouldn't have been surprising, and he wasn't asking out of any kind of doubt of Lambert's ability (honestly he had no reason to, when he hadn't seen him do anything one way or the other yet), but it's still a surprise to hear that he had found his guy on the first try.

But he's right, he really should have his name probably, which meant introductions were definitely in order.

"I'm Morgana. If you need anyone to sneak in anywhere at all, I'm your guy! Nowhere is too secure for me." Well that might not quite be true, but there was no way he wasn't going to talk himself up to this guy. He is his boss after all! And he is good at getting in just about anywhere, as long as it was somewhere a cat could squeeze in, so it was basically true.

[whattaprick]

Yeah, Lambert's expression is a little skeptical, but he shakes it off after a moment, nodding at Morgana.

"I'm Lambert. Normally, I'd ask you to show me what you can do, but that's a little hard right now." He waves a hand, dismissive. "Have you met any of the other nightrunners since you got here?"

[humanhope]

Morgana thinks for a second before shaking his head.

"I can give you a demonstration some other time! But anyway, I don't think I have. At least, I've met a few people but no one said they were one of the other nightrunners." He's not really sure who would be put in the nightrunners anyway, but since most of the people he's met so far were teenagers who were really really bad at doing anything, he doubts they were part of that department.

"I did meet the other repairs people though." Which was a far less impressive job than being a scout, probably, but it's important that his boss knows he's already gotten that part taken care of he thinks.

[whattaprick]

It's certainly a point in Morgana's favor, in Lambert's mind, and he nods approvingly. Why the Ringmaster thought a cat should go in repairs, he's got no fucking clue, but that's Peridot's problem to deal with, not his.

"Then you've already met some of the other scouts. Nines and Scout also work in repairs." Though whether Morgan recognizes the nickname or not, also not his problem. "They're hard to miss. One keeps his eyes covered and the other one has a chip on her shoulder a mile wide."

Okay, that last one is a joke, probably.

[humanhope]

He met everyone, but it was of course in the chaos after the manor collapsed so names didn't quite stick necessarily. He still nods, though, as at least the description seems a little familiar to him (maybe not the chip on the shoulder, but guy covering his eyes was definitely someone he met).

"I think I met them. It wasn't a very long meeting, though. But it's better than nothing!" He could always try and talk to them more later. It might be a good idea, since that meant they were coworkers in both of his jobs... It couldn't hurt to learn more about them, and about the work.

[whattaprick]

"Right," Lambert nods, looking tired again as he folds his arms. He's been up longer than he should, and he's starting to flag, but if nothing else it's satisfying to know he's got another new person squared away.

"Chances are, we're not going anywhere for a while. When we do, though--" When, not if. "--I'll be counting on you to pull your weight with the rest of the scouts. So use the break to get yourself up to speed."