ringleaders: (Default)
Lost Carnival Mods ([personal profile] ringleaders) wrote in [community profile] lostcarnival2017-11-11 10:17 pm

⇨ 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.
criticallyfucked: (But ground yourself with Jacob's Ladder)

[personal profile] criticallyfucked 2017-11-21 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Him.

So Zarc is a 'him.' Probably not a 'what,' then.

"Reira," he answers, blunt and barely informative. He's watching Yuya very carefully, though, through that lidded, lazy stare. Zarc had a pretty thoroughly negative connotation with Reira, too, but... more in the context of others' negativity, not her. She seemed fairly firm in her lack of that opinion.

"Her contract was in response to yours--because of Zarc." This is as he recalls it, anyway. But he is fairly certain he has framed this correctly.

"Am I wrong?"

Even if Yuya refuses to answer, he's learnt something just from the teen's reaction. Yuya is such an open book... not even a book. An engraving in a wall, tactile as well as visual, images etched large for all to see as well as feel. This is actually pretty helpful, since it means Foster doesn't have to waste his time uncovering Yuya's motives. It's all right there.
hippocarnival: (✮ 018 ✮)

[personal profile] hippocarnival 2017-11-21 06:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Yuya bites his lip, shrinking back just a little. Reira, of course, but he thought she understood not to talk about it with Yuzu here. He didn't specify not to tell other people, but what if it got around to her? Wasn't it obvious?

What if they found out they were the same?

"That's... no, you're not wrong." His gaze drifts away briefly. If Foster's asking, that means he doesn't know. Right? "Zarc was a... a demon. Not literally! But he hurt a lot of people. He would have hurt Reira."
criticallyfucked: (Blink if you can hear me)

[personal profile] criticallyfucked 2017-11-21 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Yuya is... afraid? Interesting.

"Would have," Foster echoes, detached. Pensive. "I see. You wanted to prevent it. She disagreed."

Which means Yuya is oversimplifying, or Reira wouldn't have countered his contract with one of her own. She doesn't especially enjoy being in pain. Most people don't. Reira is especially vulnerable to it already, since... emotions cause her pain. Not her own--which would have been normal, and unremarkable--but others'.

'You feel things.'

He can't really disagree, but he can't entirely agree, either. Are those really his emotions? Or just signs, correcting his path? Either way.

"Would resetting have protected her?" he wants to know. It comes out with an unstated 'actually'--a judgment, a clear doubt of its effect. He cannot fathom how resetting would have done anything at all except erased 'her.'
hippocarnival: (✮ 093 ✮)

[personal profile] hippocarnival 2017-11-21 06:39 pm (UTC)(link)
It takes Yuya a moment, but then he jolts with a shock when his mind rolls back to where he started. Reborn. His memories locked down and a new name and a new face and new identity. One that mattered to him, so much, but...

"No," he says it firmly. "It wouldn't have. Zarc can't be stopped that way." Ray already tried that. It didn't work, Zarc hadn't wanted that second chance to change.

"Reira doesn't understand as much of it as she thinks. The only way to save her was to remove him. That's what my contract was."
criticallyfucked: (But ground yourself with Jacob's Ladder)

TW: mention of Portland and suicidal ideation

[personal profile] criticallyfucked 2017-11-21 06:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"Mmmm." Foster makes a pensive sound.

It's... interesting to him that Yuya is even answering his questions, is having this conversation at all. Such an untrustworthy person as Foster van Denend can get these answers? Either Yuya is so firm in his conviction that it's not a secret, or Yuya's capacity for insight when presented with a direct question is nonexistent.

Which isn't really Foster's aim here--understanding Yuya is really kind of pointless. It's just hard to tell how much he should try to remember of this.

Yuya's contract. Reira's contract. It's doubtful there's a right or wrong here. That's not what he's looking for either.

What he's looking for--

"You sound very certain."

Yuya also sounded very certain when he told Foster that there had to be a way to overcome 'whatever it is' that made Foster choose his own death. As though there was any other way to 'overcome' himself except death. Death as an alternative to his own freedom, another sacrifice on the altar of others' happiness.

So he doesn't believe that. And it tells him nothing.
Edited 2017-11-21 19:05 (UTC)
hippocarnival: (✮ 041 ✮)

[personal profile] hippocarnival 2017-11-21 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
It's hard to dedicate to a secret that's airway been outed. He doesn't know what all Reira told Foster... but he has a feeling the most important detail, Zarc's identity, is still his to keep private. It's relieving, at least, and that's a detail no one else needs to know.

"I am certain," he says with a frown, but no less conviction. Zarc was never someone who should have been Reira's responsibility, and he won't let it be. His only choice was to separate them for her sake.
criticallyfucked: (It's all in who you know tonight)

[personal profile] criticallyfucked 2017-11-26 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
Yuya is correct on that front, at least; as far as Foster is concerned, 'Zarc' is an undefined third party to some triad of intersecting intentions between Yuya, Reira, and Zarc himself.

He has, honestly, not gained a whole lot of information, but it's difficult for him to hold all these pieces, mentally--more to the point, it's difficult for him to hold all these pieces, process them appropriately, and also hold a conversation. It's actually pretty much impossible. He knows this, but he's frustrated by it.

Now might be the only time he has as much access to what Yuya thinks about things, or what those things even are--now that it's been brought up, it will be on Yuya's mind, and that opens Yuya to deciding what he does and doesn't want known.

He closes his eyes and tries to remember what he wanted in all this.
hippocarnival: (✮ 008 ✮)

[personal profile] hippocarnival 2017-11-26 02:24 am (UTC)(link)
At least Yuya's been through this before, so when Foster falls silent he crosses his arms, shifts on his feet, and waits. He doesn't know what he trying to work out in his mind, but if Foster wants him to know he'll probably tell him.