lostcarnival | ⇨ 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

It's totally not that he didn't trust Yuya, but just it still didn't seem right to sit around and wait for someone else to go find something for him. How would Clear Wing feel, Yugo wonders, if the dragon knew his partner didn't make his own attempt at finding the card? ~~Most likely not as bad as what the teen is imagining.~~

"You sure I can't just come with you or something?"

"I really think it's better if you don't? You've been through a lot, so you shouldn't be pushing yourself!"

He crosses his arms, as if that makes his stance firmer. But he tears his gaze away from Yugo as he says it, staring over his shoulder instead. "Look, it'll be a lot faster if I go on my own."

The fact that he's holding Yuya up from doing the search right now is a very solid point. Which finally seems to be enough to make Yugo back off, the last thing he needs to do is make people worried sick about him more than needed.

"Alright, alright..." he starts, conceding to more bedrest. Took him long enough. "If it works the other way around, your dragon's probably the best thing there is for finding him anyway."

Yuya lets out a sigh of relief as Yugo relents. He then grins wide, giving a thumb's up. "You can count on me and Odd Eyes!"

He leans his hand against the doorway. "Ill go now, so just stay in bed and I'll be back soon, okay?"

That really means 'get back in bed'. He can wait until Yugo does.

Another bout of pause goes by until Yugo grasps the idea. This sucks, but he doesn't do much more than grumble lightly as he makes his way back to it and under the covers. After all, he doesn't want his dragon waiting longer for Yuya to find the card just because of his own stubbornness.

There he goes. Yuya waves as he steps back, closing the door as he does.

Thankfully, the Heart of Stone is more than willing to give up his Clear Wing, and dice, and... clothes. Less than an hour, and there's another knock on the door. And then Yuya just lets himself in, clothes bundled in his arms while the dice and card are in his hand.

"Yugo, I'm back! Clear Wing's back too!" Abs then he unceremoniously dumps the clothes and dice on Yugo's bed before holding the card out to him.

The teen isn't the only one beaming as the dragon card is handed over and taken delicately into Yugo's clawed hand. Clear Wing radiates happiness, relief, and yes fine he was maybe a little scared before Odd-Eyes helped Yuya find him.

"Ah thanks, Yuya! I owe you one...!" And it goes for Odd-Eyes as well, most likely.

"Don't worry about it," he smiles, sitting on the edge of the bed. "There's no way I'd let any of our dragons go missing." It'd be way too devastating.

He looks over Yugo quickly for any injuries from the hunt. "So, uh, now that we know Clear Wing's all right, what about you?"

He's obviously got his energy back, so Yuya's not too worried... but he did also just die.

"Well... uh.. a bit better I guess. Aside from dealing with all this stone and poison junk like everyone else sick from it."

Rather than either of his usual moods, the answer has a more solemn note in it. Because Yugo can remember enough of what he did as the giant snake monster to still feel bad about it.

"They have to be working on a cure for that already..." Yuya would definitely believe the best of his fellow carnival, but he has nothing to contribute to... actually helping with that. The best he can do now is assist all his wounded friends.

His gaze drifts aside to Yugo's arm and he purses his lips. "What... happened, when the Prince took you? Mr. Strange tried to scry for you and Gongenzaka, but he couldn't see anything."

"We were all stuck in this underground cave, really deep underground. To the wall or on the floor... waiting for either some slim chance to escape or else be a complete statue- whichever came first."

Boy that must sound partially familiar. Yugo sure seems to know how to paint a picture though.

"Magic being dead down there didn't really help either."

So it really was a prison... but it sounds worse than even Synchro. Did 'be a complete statue' mean...?

Yuya swallows, feeling a little sick thinking about it. "Oh. It's not still spreading, right?"

"Nah, it's fine! Half the time everything under it just has that feeling of being dead asleep you know? So it's just annoying now, is all."

Everyone has the Ringmaster to gratuitously thank for that, sincerely.

"That's good." At least it means they're not running on limited time.

He scratches his nose. "I'm glad you're okay, but you should be more careful next time. I guess we all should have been... but you know, he had it out for us!"

Most of his ridiculously dumb boldness back there was deliberate, but the thought doesn't do much to soften the weight of those words. It's likely that the entire experience sobered Yugo at least a little.

"Yeah... Probably."

Probably. Yuya worries over his lip for a moment, sitting in the awkward silence.

"... Do you, uh. Want to talk about any of it?" He's not sure who Yugo has to confide in here.

⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

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