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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Finding Rita was easy; she was in her own trailer, having gotten cleared to escape the medical tent. Joker, though, didn't seem to have wandered back to his official home. And between various chores, and a bit of networking, and a teensy bit of avoidance, Papyrus found himself all the way to after breakfast - the second day all this was done - before he began asking around.

And those questions led him here, in the big performance tent, climbing up to the giant safety net... That seems an awful lot less see-through than it's supposed to be. Given it's a safety net, and not a safety quilt.]

Uh... Hello, Joker? Are you up in here? It's Papyrus! I come lacking books, because this is too far for them to fall.

[Out of all the people that could come up here... Joker has to admit that he's actually glad that it's Papyrus who's found him. Slowly, he drags a pillow away from his face and struggles to sit up properly.]

[It takes even more work to smile, but the habit is too strong for him to stop.]

Ya could've just radio'd. I wouldn't have minded much.

[Papyrus rests his arms on the net, standing as he is on the upper rungs of the ladder up. This is kind of a home away from home, so he shouldn't invite himself in all the way, right?]

Oh, well. Somehow, that didn't occur to me...

And it wouldn't have done the job! I wanted to see that you're okay, and can't see through the radio.

That does seem ta be its limits, ha.... [Which Joker is glad about, sometimes, if he's honest. Somehow just voice is easier to handle.]

So, what's the verdict on if I look okay or not?

[It's a real shame, sometimes, that they don't get to share selfies with each other... but considering some of the, uh, unavoidable personalities in the carnival? This is probably for the best.]

Better than I feared! You are mostly not-stone.

Ha. Yeah. Only a quarter and some stone. Could be worse. Could be Lambert.

[You know, the guy who apparently started a giant fight right in the middle of the ball. Amazing.]

Oh no! That's right, he's in especially terrible condition... So stiff that Celandine's doing almost all the talking...

[The worst thing about being in team Roof was missing out on all the stupid fights, and seeing just how they got so battered.]

Yeah.... Ain't a pretty sight. Still, at least we got folks workin' on it all, right?

[They'll recover... Eventually. Probably.]

Yeah! Even new folks, so there's plenty of smart ideas going around. I'm sure they'll figure it out soon!

[He's not about to volunteer with that. His job's more ongoing than any of the conning, gaming, or performance types... and frankly his magical control isn't relevant to this. Unless carefully hitting people with bones could knock all the rock off.

Maybe that would be worth offering?]

Until then... Just have ta rest.

[It's what he actually prefers to be doing right now, actually, in contrast to everything else. Quite a change from the guy who once balanced both Performance and Wardrobes along with being a vampire.]

Although yer lookin' pretty energetic. Glad, if I'm honest. Me and Rita had been worried about ya.

Worried about me...?

[It's a surprise, and it shows on his face for a minute before he tries to smile it off.]

Oh, there's no need! Papyrus is fine. Traversing that rooftop was practically made for me. And we got Sans back! We got everyone back.

[Doing so took some things he's not happy with, in all honesty... but he didn't have the backbone to protest without some better idea. And then, better to help it succeed, than risk them doing something awful and not succeeding... Right?]

Mmm, yeah, we did. [Joker can't argue that. Better for them to be poisoned and stiff back in the carnival than the same at the Prince's manor. Or, for that matter, in his manor at all.]

Still, we didn't know what was goin' on outside, or how ya were doin'. S'good ta see ya ended up well.

Aww... thank you! When you are well, I will tell you the same thing. [And that day will surely not be long now!!! Surely not.]

So look forward to it!!

Ha. Well, I can't wait.

But if you've come ta see me, does that mean you've seen Rita, too? [Since she was the only other person on their "team" who got caught.]

Of course! I found her yesterday, in her trailer. And then some things happened. So, I didn't find you until today.

[Mostly, in all the excitement he forgot. He could have looked at night, but, as Joker seems likely to be a person who needs sleep...]

Good. She's doin' well, then? Not fussin' too much?

[He might have heard some things on the radio, you know.]

[Asking on the main public channel is a great way to get even more distracted by chatter, but rarely a great way to accomplish anything. Maybe that would have been the best approach after all.]

She... She is fussing. But probably not too much! Not with books as distractions.

[The question is, are there enough books to distract her enough?]

[Well, that's not too surprising, he guesses.]

We'll have ta find a way ta get her more books some day, huh?

Yeah! Mayhap our next destination... will be somewhere like Alola! Plenty of bookstores. And other stores.

[Mostly pokemon stores, admittedly, and everything else was still pretty related to pokemon.]

Hopefully. After, ah.... You know. [There's a lazy and vague wave of a hand gesture.] We did go ta Alola after that.

Ringmaster knows better... than ta send us anywhere really dangerous after this sort of thing.

[At least she damn well better.]

I'm... sure she does. As long as she... knows it'll be dangerous.

[But the Celebration...]

Mmm. Right.

[Fantastic. Poison really is doing a number on him, if he can't remember that much, which is a laugh considering how much those memories have been antagonizing him. Joker lets out a huff of air.]

S'why oters gotta watch out for that too.

Well! I'm healthy and injury-free. I can watch very carefully for vampires! And, uh, other dangers.

[There are so many unfamiliar kinds of danger out here, it's probably going to keep tripping him up. But he's learning. Anytime peoples' feelings about something suddenly change... that's probably a sign of something bad.]

You can call me, any time you want to know if I've seen something dangerous.

Heh. I'll keep that in mind. But, y'know-

[He peeks over at Papyrus.]

Yer the janitor, right?

Eh? Yes, I... I am. The head janitor, not the sole janitor! It's a big carnival, and I'm only one skeleton. Some of the cinder spirits clean too.

⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

Day 2

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i don't know what format i was aiming for in that last past, don't start top-levels half-asleep

don't sleep and rp, kids

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