⇨ 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

[prazerbutterfly]

"I don't. She knew what she was throwing us into from the start. Otherwise she wouldn't have been as strict as she was about us behaving."

He has a feeling that the Ringmaster, while over eccentric and over the top, didn't really all that care about the opinions of other fae or humans/organisms beneath her. She did care to some degree as he had learned given she made effort to at least get back what was hers.

"But it was our choice to leave our rooms. Anyone could've gotten caught. Anyone could've broken his rules. The way he was, the way I got to see him deep within that hole, the rules would likely have gotten worse over time."

[chronosynthesis]

"Oh, I don't doubt that. But we could have benefited from more time locating the Rose and the Prince's weaknesses, and less time trying to find and retrieve the missing."

In the end, their safety gave the Prince a considerable edge to do whatever he wanted. But Syrlya leans off the counter. "Still, there is no point dwelling over what could have been. It's already done."

[prazerbutterfly]

"Not that any of you managed to find any of us in time. Wasted hours regardless. With how tightlipped and fearful the servants were I doubt much information would've been possible. Even my charm didn't' work on them," he says matter of factly. Don't mind if he flaunts himself a little. He's not trying to impress him. It's just Tyki being Tyki.

But Syrlya was right. With captives it gave them leverage, "Right. I'll just peel these potatoes, wait for time to pass, then move on. A lot of us came out with persisting injuries."

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya purses his lips for a moment. It's true that they were too late. It wasn't until after the hunt that they were able to figure out any useful information, including what was happening to the missing. And even less time to act... it was all really just a few days. If only they had been able to act as confidently during the day, but no doubt the Prince kept them busy for a reason.

And then Tyki goes on and Syrlya's moment of guilt drops and his expression becomes flat and unimpressed. Charm, right.

He leans off the counter, patting it one with his hand to announce his leave. "Well, I will leave you to your potato peeling. Try to take it easy so long as you're poisoned, all right?"

[prazerbutterfly]

When he was a Heartstone Manor servant he used that guilt tactic to make a lot of people he talked to feel down on themselves. Right now he wasn't trying for that effect even if he often talked before he considered his own words. He knows the choices he made and how it got him deep into that Underbelly. He can't honestly blame anyone but himself nor is he trying to impress upon people that they should've tried harder.

He snorts at the mention of being ditched and he'll raise his knife with a swirl of it in the air, "Oh, I will try, Mister Rose." As soon as he's done working himself all day out of punishment, "As long as you come by later for something made of potato and take care of yourself as well. There will be plenty of them!"