lostcarnival | ⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

Entry tags:

⇨ 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

Ohhh. I do use them for attacks! That's how my magic is, because, I'm a skeleton. [It might be hard to tell under the distracting scattering of orange crystals, and she might not be familiar with them, who knows.]

But, presents... I think the best thing is, use it how you want to use it. Just knowing you appreciate it is right enough for me!

If that means attacks, I could... show you some tips and tricks for wielding a bone! If that means saving it as a high-grade, Papyrus Collectors' Item, we could... find a shelf to display it on?

Really, there's so many options, I'm making myself dizzy with them.

Ummmmh....

[Well, that's fortunate. But. What's unfortunate is, well.] ................that's a lot of choices.........

[Papyrus you were meant to help her figure this out, now there's TOO MANY CHOICES.] Ummhhh....

...can....you.... [She looks at the bone a bit. This seems far too large to do something like wear on a sleeve or something. And she definitely doesn't want to ruin her first Real Present by going around and hitting people with it. Or however magic bones work.] Mmnnh... ...Magic is something that sounds 'cool', [she admits, the last word feeling a bit odd to say,] But........

....Can you hug a bone? [She decides, blinking at the skeleton. She might not know what to do with this yet, but that answer is still Important, she figures.]

Absolutely!!! [He very nearly shouts in agreement, and encouragement. That use never occurred to him... but it's good! And it's one she thought of herself, which means! She must love the present!!]

Bones are great for hugging, that's what makes skeletons so cuddly. [He should know, he has hugged a skeleton at least twice this week. And his daemon is pretty physically affectionate when she's about.]

[SKELETONS ARE CUDDLY?

She is staring at him with quite a fair bit of awe, now. She didn't know this, after all! She's assuming he means...monster skeletons, granted. She's never had much of a chance to hug a monster skeleton, so....

...So Reira takes a few steps deliberately forward, and decides to hug him.

Or his legs. She's quite short, so.]

[Their softness is over-hyped, as he is bone and crystal in some fairly light clothing, hard when squeezed. But cuddly...

He eeps a high-pitched sound in his surprise, staring down at her. She's so short! It's almost more a leglock than a hug, some corner of him expects to be toppled over at any moment! But that's a hug, and still a hug, and it's precious.]

You see! Cuddly as can be, although... I admit, I didn't think of the difference in our heights! If I could kneel down, I could hug you back?

[Failing that, maybe he could blue magic her up into the air. But you don't just do that, you give warning first.]

Um... [Things that don't generally happen. That.] ...I-If it means a hug, you can do anything, I think..!

....Lots of people are taller than I am, though.

[Anyway you're still cuddly, even if it's like. Rock cuddly.]

Being short... it's a real hug-obstacle if they're floating.

Fortunately, with a little wiggle room... You can hug on an equal footing, regardless of if they have feet. Behold, and be held!

[Papyrus gestures, pings her blue, and floats her up where they can hug face to face.]

Wiggle room? [Reira starts-but with a quick yelp, she sees what Papyrus means.] AH-!

[It's good that she's quick to react, really-because quickly she's got her arms around the other's shoulders, half for the hug and half for fear of floating away.] ...Woah.

[She calms down once she realizes she isn't, of course.]

[ Let's see, what are Flowey's feelings again? Antagonism, pettiness, disgust, heartbreaking sadness at the loss of someone or something you used to have, kinship, fear, dread, revelation.

... which means if he's skewing anywhere, he's more scared of anyone right now, so the best he can do for himself is pop up near Reira and try to force kinship to the front. All the scared feelings are calling out the others, and he doesn't like it.

He leans to see Papyrus hug her, staring a bit blankly, and...

Burrows into the ground again! ]

[Papyrus waits out that moment of surprise, and grins once she hits something like calm awe.]

As you can see... I'm a truly expert hugger! No matter the height difference, I can make it happen.

[Not that he's had much call for it, but you never know!!]

Hahhhhh...! [That's for sure! She's sort of stuck here, now, but wow!!] Was....Was that the magic you talked about for bones..!?

How do bones make that magic..!? [She questions, eyes wide. Of course, just as she says that, there's a little....blip near them, and then back to farther away, and-]

Umn.... [She looks to the ground where Flowey Was, and then toward where he should be now. Which is decidedly not the direction of Papyrus' face.]

[ Quietly, he rises again, watching. This felt comfortable, yeah.

He remembered that Papyrus nearly brought him to that state of non-boredom and kept things new every now and then, and Reira-- Reira already believed him. ]

No, that's a different magic! I do use them together, sometimes, and they can both be blue...

[It's the best combination. Bones to distract as he pings a soul blue... blue magic to trip people up, making it harder to dodge the bones... A match made in blue magic heaven! Wherever that might be.]

I don't think having a bone would let you use it... but I'm happy to give a lift any time. [The moment he knows she wants down, she can drift to the ground with the gentlest of tugging. Like bouncing around on the moon!]

Oh..! I guess that makes sense... ....if blue means things that go up and down, or make bones.... [These are two very different things though. Erm. Regardless, she carefully lets go, after a slight nod to the ground.] Um-I should go down now, though....

[She has to go Find someone. Or actually, speak to someone, since now that she looks, she can see Flowey again.] Ah-

[ ... hey.

Hey. He doesn't appreciate this.

There was a way this was supposed to go. You see a fleeting glance of a friend you parted with on sad terms and you chase after them, just like in movies and comic books. It was almost like Papyrus was ignoring him? Papyrus never ignored anything, he was incapable! And underneath all those petals Flowey is still a child, so--

Like stamping his foot in the ground, he clips up and down through the ground as if to say HEY?? NOTICE ME ]

Of course! Please enjoy the ride. [And Papyrus just. Lets go of the child, in middair.

Only with his hands, of course, so Reira gets to drift slowly down before the blue magic fades off.]

Blue's... something else than that. More to do with, uh... moving, and not moving...?

[Speaking of moving things, there's motion in his peripheral vision. Papyrus turns and squints at it, and all he can make out for sure, at this distance, is that it's yellow. Could it be...?]

Hey, do you see something over there? [He hopes she does, he hopes it's Flowey! After Sans' sudden threats and unhappiness, Papyrus had chosen to focus on reassuring his brother first... but after, he'd set out in search of his flower friend! His... very stealthy, very evasive flower friend. Who'd be nearly impossible to find, if he didn't want to be found. After all, if Flowey had a radio of his own... wouldn't he have called Sans?]

Edited (broken small tag) 2017-11-20 01:05 (UTC)

Mmnnh-mm... [And down, and down, and....she's immediately running over toward Flowey, not even bothering to answer Papyrus! (Rude!)

To be fair-or maybe not very fair-she's more worried about the flower.] Hey! [she starts, stopping once close enough to speak.] .........Were you being scared, before..?

[That's not actually a question, she caught a bit of fear. But she figures it's less embarrassing if it's a 'question', right?]

...

[ He looks away, as if he doesn't want to answer. But he has to, right? She knows his feelings from the get-go. ]

Yeah. I mean, I'm not supposed to be around Papyrus. But-- well, there are no buts. His brother banned me from seeing him again for a good reason, so.

[Hardly the first time someone's walked away without acknowledging him. And it's not like she was completely shunning him, she's just investigating his question so intently that she didn't respond! Any tiny bits of hurt from this are so small he can just wrap them up and tuck them away for never.

He just follows along, a little distance behind, to wait patiently... As she does, indeed, uncover a friend! With an explanation for his disappearing act.]

There is a big but! [Papyrus huffs and shakes his head.] Sans was being it, because he was upset and scared for me...

[Okay, maybe he shouldn't have called his brother a butt. Wow, his temper is frayed in ways he hasn't realized. Papyrus quickly coughs an -ahem- and moves on.] Anyway, consider it revoked! He doesn't get to decide that stuff. And I want to see you!

Edited 2017-11-20 01:29 (UTC)

[Reira WAS about to ask what that even meant. Not allowed? Why would someone say someone else wasn't allowed? Did they just not get along? What did that even mean? Papyrus' words only make things a little more confusing, honestly. Reira looks from Flowey to Papyrus, and back to the flower a few times, before finally asking what's now on her mind.] Umn..! So then...you know A- Flowey? And....you know him? [Reira asks them both, blinking with a bit of alarm.] ...But....

........Why would he be scared, people aren't supposed to hurt each other here anyway.... [She's not going to go with the other obvious part where one is a flower. Who knows what kind of power a travelling flower has.]

...

"The moment before the Prince shattered into dust, the Ringmaster gave him a deal."

That wasn't the truth. The truth was... [ He takes a deep breath as if he has lungs, shudders slightly, and looks at Reira in the face. ] I did shatter into dust. I became a flower, and someone injected me with the will to live, but I didn't have a soul. Because I couldn't feel love or empathy, I became a... really bad person. I had the power to reset, and I used it for bad things.

When the Ringmaster finally took me in, it was when everyone had a happy ending. I agreed to sign in exchange for getting my soul back, but as a caveat, I had to gain those emotions one by one.

Understand?

[Oh. Flowey's been telling a shorter version of his story, one that didn't... run smackdab into Sans, and why people might be upset with him. It's... probably best he not leave it at that, when Sans is around to get more upset. So it's good he's fessing up, and Papyrus doesn't want to interrupt it further.

Just a quick answer for Reira, and back he goes back to lingering:]

You could say we're friends, from before the carnival.

[Whether they are friends is a little harder to pin down. Can you really call it a friendship if it's one-sided, or if the two sides are a little mixed up in time? Who knows.]

[Well. That's a confession, certainly. Reira takes a few moments of silence in reply-both to ponder what she knows, what she assumed, and what has changed. Eventually, she decides to glance toward Papyrus.... ...and, from there-] ....I guess that means you weren't always a flower, if you 'became' a flower, [she eventually says, looking toward Papyrus again.] .......but...

...If you're both friends, which name is better, then? [she adds; which name has to be secret?

Regardless of the answer, she continues after it.] ..........When you told the story....I said it reminded me of someone, right? ....That's because....they did something really wrong. Something that hurt a lot of people. ....You didn't say who the 'Prince' was, but....

....I thought....if someone doesn't have feelings anymore, then something bad happened. And....if someone has to keep it secret, until they get their feelings back.... ....then, probably, a really big mistake happened.

...but....what's important, I don't think, is what kind of mistake that was. ...People can't change what happened. Not like that, I don't think. ....So...

....I guess I already knew you did 'something'. ....But that doesn't mean we can't be friends, to me at least. And.... [She looks back to Papyrus.] ...........With what you're feeling............ ......it's probably the same, right?

[The decision to still be friends, that is.]

....umh....the power to reset, though... ....is...that like the cards I told you about, in my story? ....Did...people forget things, and change, when that happened..?

No-- it's more like the power to reset time. People forgot things, but they never changed. And... I don't want to call myself that fake name anymore. I'm Asriel.

[ He shakes his head, feeling like coming out and admitting this was a necessary mistake, especially to someone like Reira. He didn't know how to further explain. ]

Once I was dead, it was like, my heart passed on but my mind and this body didn't.

[ He glances over to Papyrus with a slight laugh. ]

-- You know he'll be mad, right? Even though it'll make him mad, it makes me happy to hear you say that. I wanted to say I remembered how to prove myself. If you ask the ringmaster about my wish... and Alphys what happened to one of her flowers when she injected it with determination, you'll have the proof. Both of you.

Edited 2017-11-20 02:55 (UTC)

[Papyrus nods along slowly, especially at the question of whether he wants to be friends, and thinks of bits and pieces of the story that Flowey - Asriel - told him and Sans. Remembering a little more, about old New Home stories of Asgore's ancient grief. It must have been awful, back then. Even worse than Sans' upset for Papyrus...]

I know he'll be mad. But, he already knows I'm going to. So nobody's getting an unpleasant surprise. Another one.

[No offence, Fl-Asriel. He still wants to be friends, of course! But that was pretty unpleasant all around. And, with Asriel wanting to be friends too, friendship is going to happen. Somehow. It's a nice accomplishment for the day.]

I'll swing around and ask her. It's a good excuse to talk to her more!

[Maybe not the best topic, since it might make her alarmed, and upset, and secretive. But he can be friendly and persistent with the best of them, and hopefully persuasive.]

...Hey, Alphys made your flower alive, right? Does that make Alphys, like... your secret second science mom?

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