⇨ 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

[fortuneglass]

Carly nods-and she notices the slight pause, ducking her head somewhat. Susan's smile only helps a little. She returns it, a faint, hurt one, but hurriedly tries to move into what needs focus. "...I was told you needed your clothes adjusted down?" she asks quietly, not yet giving motion for him to move or similar. "You...shrank?"

[wild_magic]

Susan nods, glancing to Lauren at the door before back to Carly. He hopes Lauren doesn't stay awkward or quiet the whole time, but even if he does, there's more important things to do right now.

"Yeah. When I woke up, after everything, I was shorter... It kind of sucks." Especially since he's already small for his age, but even if not for that, getting smaller still sucks.

"I don't mind them being bigger, really, but it makes them rub on my wings funny again."

[mylastchance]

He can tell Carly is upset in the way she looks away from him, and in the way she smiles at Susan totally lacking in any joy. It's not right. The Carly he knew wasn't always smiling, but she almost never looked so hopeless. He's tempted to ask her about it, but she's already started talking to Susan and he doesn't want to interrupt her when she's here to work. Of course, there's something else stopping him from wanting to approach her, it's something a lot like fear but it's so misplaced it doesn't even feel like his own. It's more like a memory of a feeling, something that was there, but that didn't make sense any longer. He forces himself to step closer in spite of it.

"Sorry to keep bothering you with his clothes."

[fortuneglass]

"Oooof!" At the least, it's easy to default to a more typical mood when Lauren speaks-even if it Is difficult for her to look at him. "This is my job! We adjust clothes to suit changes, after all..!" She comes nearer to Susan, quieting again. "....Could I see your back then? I can take the measurements I need, and see how I should adjust from there."

[wild_magic]

He smiles a little as Carly and Lauren have... Well, a pretty normal conversation, for the two of them. It's easier to pretend things are back to normal, that way. It also gives him a minute to gently push Zap aside before standing a little slowly, turning so she can see his back. Even without measuring him, it's probably obvious he's shorter by half a foot or so.

"Should I take my tunic off?" Because he definitely can if he needs to, but if she doesn't need him to then he doesn't want to bother.

[mylastchance]

It still feels off. It's awkward and he's used to that feeling that way in his interactions with others, but not with Carly. Carly is so awkward herself it's nearly impossible to feel nervous about interacting with her, and yet right now he is. It's not irritating, but Lauren doesn't like that it's there. It's like there's this weird wall between him and he doesn't know what to do about. Maybe he shouldn't do anything about it. Maybe he should just leave Carly be. He isn't sure, so he ends up just taking a step back again and letting Carly and Susan do whatever they need.

[fortuneglass]

"Only if you're comfortable with that. I can still take measurements while you're wearing something, it's just easier to see where the joins for the wings are," she explains, nodding. Hoo. He sure did shrink however....she purses her lips, tapping her chin.

"....I'll probably have to hem one shirt here, and then the rest in the tent," she says immediately. "You can wear that first one until the rest are finished." Or. Tunic, rather. Whatever.

[wild_magic]

"I don't mind." He gives a small shrug at her explanation before pulling it up and off, careful of his wings and with a bit of difficulty over his still-stone left arm and shoulder. Luckily the stone stops shortly before it gets to the wing itself on that side, though. Honestly just having her right behind him to get measurements is going to be a little anxiety-inducing, having his top off isn't going to affect that at all. Either way though he fidgets with his hands, shifting a little where he stands after he's no longer occupied in taking off his shirt.

"Is it really that much work to fix them?"

[fortuneglass]

"Alright," she replies, waiting and watching. There is a slight grimace and flinch, when she sees the stone-fortunately Susan's back is to her, but it happens nonetheless. She tries to keep talking-just to keep things 'calm', at least.

"Mnh...it depends; for things like pants, you have to not only shorten things, but take in the waist. For tops, there's the sleeves, but also the collar, shoulders.... ....Because of how things are made to fit, there's a lot of ways that they need to be changed to fit too, when someone 'shrinks'."

[wild_magic]

"It sounds hard... It must be annoying to have to do." Is that something he should apologize for? It is her job, after all, so he probably doesn't have to, but it still does sound like a lot of work to have to do all the time. Way more work than his jobs, at least. Maybe he should at least thank her for coming over, and for getting to it so fast instead of waiting for it.

"Thanks... I'm glad you could come and do it." Because she's right, there's lots of things that probably do need changing, and even if he's okay with baggy clothes he still needs clothes that actually stay on and don't irritate him.

[fortuneglass]

"Well....sometimes it can be a bit irritating if someone comes in too many times, I guess," she admits, chewing her lip. "...But really, if anything, it feels like you don't come in enough you know..!! Like I said, it's our job to do this for you! ...so.... ....It's good to be allowed to do it, really."

[wild_magic]

He smiles a little bit as she rambles, honestly happy to have another person here that isn't just Lauren that he can listen to and talk to.

"I can come more often, if you want, but I don't have things change as much as some other people do."

[fortuneglass]

"Awwww...it's not like that...." she laughs, waving a hand. "It's more... ....Just come when you need to, okay?" she tells him, nodding. "When Lauren came in with your clothes before, asking about how to sew them, it was quite a sight you know....I could have been working on those all this time..!"

Oop.

[mylastchance]

Hey now.

"I didn't want to bother you."

[wild_magic]

"It is her job, though!" He can't help but laugh at his brother. He doesn't personally see a problem with their previous job of just cutting his clothes up, but he has to admit they were nicer to wear now that she had fixed them.

[insidescoop]

"Exactly!! And we've been through this, you!" she huffs, pouting at Lauren. "What am I supposed to do otherwise, if you're not letting me do my work? Someone could complain you know..~"

Is she teasing? Probably. Mostly. But shush.

[mylastchance]

This feels familiar. Someone could complain, she said, but Lauren doubted that would be the case. Who would complain besides him?

He remembers Hinawa coming to their trailer the first day back. What she had offered was simple, to bring them breakfast the next day. She said it was her job, but that didn't make sense to him. He didn't see how contracted workers could care enough about their jobs to do more than what was asked of them. If he didn't ask than there was no reason for them to care. That was, of course, unless the reason they actually cared was him.

I enjoy you. It's a faded blurry memory, but it's there. Annabelle had said that to him when he asked her why she sought his company. It was strange and unbelievable to hear then, and it was much the same now. Carly had and, no doubt, would scold him many times in his time here at the carnival, but he remembers one time in particular when he'd brushed off her insight. She'd told him he wasn't alone anymore. She scolded him for failing to ask for assistance.

It had felt like such ridiculous irrelevant advice at the time. It still sounded ridiculous now. Why would anyone want to help him? Why should he ask? He still didn't know the answers to those questions, and yet people insisted on helping him again and again simply because it was their job.

He looks to Carly and realizes there's parts of her he doesn't know at all.

"Do you care about us two?"

[wild_magic]

Susan of course is ready to continue the teasing, but then Lauren comes out with an actual honest question like that and it confuses him enough to give him pause. He even glances over his shoulder back at his brother, trying to see if he can figure him out. What sort of question is that?

[insidescoop]

It throws her off-Carly finds herself even choking when the question is asked, shaking her head with how off guard it leaves her. Does she care? There's no question about that after all, so-

"Wh- Of course I care..!" she protests loudly, looking almost worried, or even scared. She cares, but she was the one to help take them both down in the 'hunt' for that reason, and she wonders-perhaps even fears-how much of the feeling they would have had lingers as a result. But... "...Lauren... ...Did... ....does it feel like I don't..?" she whispers anxiously, searching him over with her eyes.

[mylastchance]

He takes a step back, eyes going wide in terror at the shake in her voice. She sounded like she was going to cry! He looks to Susan for help, begging his brother to help him with his eyes.

"It's not a feeling!" If course caring was a feeling, but that isn't what he meant. "I mean. I just didn't know. I wasn't..."

SUSAN...

[wild_magic]

Lauren how are you so bad at talking to people? Susan just doesn't understand. He turns back to them both, especially because of the pleading look in Lauren's eyes, trying to think of what he can say to calm Lauren down so they can actually have a conversation since apparently they have to now.

"Lauren just isn't good at telling what people think! So I think, you must have confused him..." Even he's not entirely sure where Lauren is trying to go with his question, what he's actually asking, and so that's the best he can do for now.

[insidescoop]

"W-Well it really sounds like-" Ooof! Even she doesn't know what he's trying to say. After some huffing and pouting, she eventually settles for trying to explain...her end? "...You can't say caring isn't feeling..! Caring is definitely a feeling," she protests, nodding.

"...And naturally...it's something that you reflect in your actions, I think! I do a lot of things for a lot of people, because I care about them-about if they're warm, or if they're comfortable..."

The woman frowns. "...So...if something makes that seem fake, or like it's not there at all..." It matters a lot. More than...most, in their case, granted, but it matters a lot.

"...Has it ever seemed like I don't care?" she repeats, more calm this time at least.

[mylastchance]

His shoulders hunch up, hands raised as though to put a barrier between them. Of course caring was a feeling, he didn't mean it felt like she didn't care, only that he had never known she cared. It feels stupid to even say that now though. Susan was right when he said Lauren wasn't good at telling what people thought. Of course he wasn't good at it. He never had been and Carly should have known that. She shouldn't be getting so upset and yelling at him for something like that!

He moves a step back, embarrassed and a little bit angry, but most of all nervous and wanting this to stop.

"I can't... I'm no good at. I mean. It's hard to know w-what. Um." He takes another step back before just turning and running away. He doesn't want to leave Susan alone though. So he just runs into the bathroom, locking the door behind him.

[wild_magic]

If Susan were feeling better, he would chase after his brother. Unfortunately he isn't, and sudden movement is hard, and so although he makes a move to stop Lauren, he stops with a wince and instead watches as his brother locks himself in the bathroom. At least he didn't go anywhere... Still, though, hiding isn't really much better.

After a moment he looks to Carly again with a small apologetic smile.

"Sorry... Lauren isn't very good at saying what he means." He's sure she already knows that, but it can't hurt to remind her.

[insidescoop]

"HEHH!?! L-LAUREN!?" WELP.

He's gone. She blinks a few times, before looking back to Susan. "I...I mean I knew that part, but...." She trails off, sighing. "Hauuuuhhhh.... ....I made a mess of it didn't I...."