⇨ 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

[soft_focus]

Um, I guess.... [It's very true, but...Hmm.] ....Right now, I just get tired a little faster, I think. ....It's sort of like what used to happen, at home though, [She adds, briefly considering 'home' in question. Not a fun place. A cold end of the world (not the coldest, mind, but Cold), surrounded by either the dead or by soldiers who would occasionally remember that someone Did need food...

She's definitely been sick before.] ...I've been going back to the trailer when that happens though, [She promises.] ...I can't make anything better if I just get more sick.

[Regardless.] ....How did you get here? [Well. Maybe less how and more...why? The menagerie IS a bit out of the way, she's pretty sure.]

[hurtcomfort]

I walked. [ Cole, at least, is answering the how as a how.

He's also picking up on the hurt that Reira thinks of when she thinks of home. Alone, cold and conditioned, well she's small just make her run errands, nobody would suspect a kid. ]

War touches everyone, [ Cole murmurs, seemingly out of nowhere. ] But it touched you more than most.

[soft_focus]

You can walk to lots of places though. [Fair point though, Cole. Fair. Point.] ...Most people don't walk to this one...

[That said.] ....Hey. ..........How do you know things?

[Literally, she means. How do you just sort of...know Stuff about people? It seems to make talking about stuff a fair bit easier.]

[hurtcomfort]

I simply do, [ Cole answers, with a little shrug. ] It's compassion's role to heal the hurts.

[ And that's what he knows about himself now. He's Cole. But he's also a spirit of compassion. The two aren't separate, they just are. ]

[soft_focus]

So....

....You're 'Compassion'? [This is a bit like with Morgana, she's finding. Morgana is 'Human Hope'. But he felt a lot more things than hope.

Cole feels like someone who feels more than 'just' compassion, though.] ...I didn't know that was what that word meant, but it seems important.

[There's lots of feelings she doesn't have words for.]

[hurtcomfort]

It's empathy, [ Cole explains. ] Seeing the hurts, feeling the pain and reaching out to try and heal. I tell when they're hurting. I try and make it better.

[soft_focus]

[Wat.] .......................how come people call me being able to feel everyone's feelings empathy then.............

....There's a lot more than just bad feelings, that I feel....

[hurtcomfort]

It might be a word that means multiple, [ Cole chimes in, hopefully helpful. ]

Like 'feeling.'

[ The act of touching something and a sensation in one's mind and gut that links to an emotion. Perhaps empathy could be feeling all the feelings as well as comforting all the feelings? ]

[soft_focus]

Oh...! ....That makes sense.... If feeling couldn't mean other things, I wouldn't be able to say I was feeling a feeling, so....

...I guess that means I could use Empathy to feel empathy, then.... [What a mess of words!] ...........Mhn....I think it's better to find different words though... [The repetition sounds odd....]

[hurtcomfort]

Which one would we change though? Your empathy or my empathy?

[ Hopefully this makes sense. The small little frown on Cole's face tells Reira that he isn't entirely sure it DOES make sense. ]

[soft_focus]

Mnhhh...I think mine? [It makes Perfect Sense to her, apparently.] Since it's feeling all the feelings, and not feeling one feeling on your own, there has to be another word for it, right?

[That's not how this works Reira.]

[hurtcomfort]

You'd think so. [ but as for what that word is...Cole's not entirely sure. ]

Maybe we can just call yours feeling?

[soft_focus]

But then feeling has two versions....... [THIS....IS TERRIBLE.]

Hmn. ....We have to find a word. That's what we have to do.

...Maybe it'll be in a book. [There's lots of new words to be found in books, she's finding, after all.]

[hurtcomfort]

[ Cole nods, as if that's a very smart move and a definite Thing They Must Do.

Although, there is one last question. ]

Can others do what you do? We could call it yours.

[ Reira's empathy. Reira's talent. It makes sense. ]

[soft_focus]

I don't think anyone does, [She admits.] Almost everyone is surprised when I say what's happening.... ...So I guess...

[How has she heard people put it? 'Thing'? ...No Thing is definitely a bad word here that's worse, too vague.] ...I guess it's a sense, but I don't know what kind of sense....

...A feeling sense?

[Emotion, Reira. The word you want is Emotion.]

[hurtcomfort]

A sense of feelings. I sense hurt. You sense everything.

[ Cole's a bit more comfortable with that explanation and gives Reira a little nod. Yeah. That's got to be right, right? ]

[soft_focus]

Hmmmm! Then...that's what we call it, [She decides. ~Feeling sense~

Oh-] ...Is yours the 'hurt sense' if mine is 'feeling sense', then? [He did say he senses hurt, in contrast to her feeling everything, so it makes sense. Regardless-] Umnh....

Thanks for helping me find a word for mine, ok! [This was sort of important after all. More important though, probably-] ....That's the word for what you do, but...

...What's your name?

[hurtcomfort]

I'm Cole, [ he answers, with a little nod. ] What's yours?

[soft_focus]

Mine is 'Reira'..! [She tells him.] ...Akaba Reira-but Reira is the important one, [She decides, nodding.]

....Are you staying here now? [She asks, after a half second.]

[hurtcomfort]

I am. It was either stay with her or stay with him.

[ Cole didn't know the Prince would end up dead. All he knew is that there was so much pain and suffering and hurt among the servants and he couldn't let himself be taken like that. They were changed. He couldn't let himself be changed like that, not again. ]

[soft_focus]

....Staying here is definitely better, [she says rather immediately. It wasn't fun at all. Not with how familiar it had been to where she came from.]

[hurtcomfort]

It is, [ Cole immediately responds, with a little nod of his own. At least here, the Ringmaster could let him help. Could let him be him. Cole's not so sure if the Prince would let him do that. ]

I don't mind here, [ he admits. ] I see where I'm needed.

[soft_focus]

[Being needed is definitely good! But, erm...] ....Did she need you for the animals, or something else though..? [You know, while they're here in the menagerie.]

[hurtcomfort]

Oh, no. I'm running a game. [ Cole has no idea how to run a game in the first place. ]

I wanted to see the animals myself. They're...different.

[ How do you help a sentient book, hell if Cole knows just yet. ]

[soft_focus]

Oh....so it's like Yuzu-neesama's job then.... [Yuzu was a cashier, mind, but...Eh, similar.]

Animals feel different from humans. ....It's less messy-most feelings don't get all mixed up with animals.