⇨ 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

[osteothropy]

That's sort of alarming, but possibly alarming in a good way. He's kind of realizing that Amethyst is back for a second time, his memories of their previous meeting far more confusing and unpleasant than they should have been.

He's still pretty much wavering on his feet, but he actually manages to smile. Feels good to hear.

"You picked a hell of a time to show up, Mon Amie," he says, with nothing resembling a French accent.

[drrdrrdrr]

She laughs weakly, dropping back down to the ground in her regular shape -- or as regular as it gets at the Carnival, anyway.

"Sure did," she says with a lopsided grin, and claps him on the shoulder with one hand. Not too hard, though. "You're doin' better, huh? When'd you get the mojo back?" For her part Amethyst didn't realise Sans's name had been restored until she literally came across him just now and realised i) he was out of the trailer ii) she could remember all the stuff she liked to call him.

[osteothropy]

"A few... minutes ago, I guess?" He puts a hand on his skull, looking off into the distance, like he's still sorting out what happened. "Something happened. I think the guy that had my Name is dead?"

Kind of a weird lack of closure on that, but alright. He looks a bit lost and offput by that, that what he'd lost was brought back with no action of his own.

"Did someone... explain all of this to you?"

[drrdrrdrr]

"Eh, kiiinda?" She shrugs. "I got told about this Prince guy, but it was pretty confusing."

[osteothropy]

"Cool," he says, faintly. "Uh. I kinda... kinda don't know if I've got it in me, at the mo'," he adds. As much of a relief as it is to see her and to be known, he's still looking pretty woozy. He leans against the bone weapon he's holding.

"Look, I gotta... this is important. Have you seen my brother?"

[drrdrrdrr]

"Oh geez," says Amethyst. "I don't think so... it's kinda dead around here, I think everyone's doing some... ugh, like, some kind of contest or something?" She's grimacing -- but after a pause she perks up a little. "Hey, d'you think if the guy died that means they won?"