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

"No, you're fine," Sora quickly assures. "I just... I dunno. This whole thing's been such a mess..."

Maybe it's just how tired he is, but he feels like everything's stuck in limbo.

"Mm. But you were brainwashed, so it's not your fault."

If everyone (well, mostly everyone) can forgive Strange for acting like a giant asshole in Portland, they can forgive Sora now. Or at least Tamaki can - he can't speak for Doll, but he doubts she's mad, either. Doll is endlessly kind, in his mind. As for the Psiionic, Tamaki doesn't think that will be an issue either, but then he's never gotten in a knockout fight with him (or anyone for that matter).

"Sorarin is normally nice. So everything will be fine."

"But... but it's my fault I... that I was like that," he tries to explain. He's probably not doing a great job. "I snuck out, and I dragged Rin with me..."

He could have done so much more. Fought more against the Prince, tried to get away, tried anything. It's nice that Tamaki's forgiven him, but that doesn't relieve him of the guilt.

"Ah..." So that was how he ended up like that in the first place. Tamaki shrugs.

"Yeah. That was pretty dumb. Especially since they told us not to leave after curfew."

Far be it from Tamaki to lecture people on following the rules, but in this situation it was pretty imperative that everyone do as they were told. The fact that several of them didn't is pretty discouraging, actually, and he ended up having to help kill someone over it...

But there's nothing that can really be done about it now.

"Just don't do it again, I guess." That's what a responsible person would say in this situation, right?

"I was trying to help..."

In the end, though, he really did the opposite, and maybe that's what's bothering Sora the most. He's supposed to be the hero, but lately, he's been feeling more and more powerless. Maybe it's just a slump? But it's a pretty heavy one.

"But, yeah... Sorry, again."

"S'okay. At least, for me." He shrugs. "You should apologize to the supervisors, too."

But for now, they don't have to think so much about that - Sora probably shouldn't be getting so worked up, anyway. Though he is now reminded of the conversation they had when Sora was still brainwashed, and so he decides to bring it up, a bit abruptly.

"But anyway... you mentioned people that are supposed to be in your heart - what was that about?"

Sora perks up slightly, a little confused at the sudden change in topic. But then, Tamaki seemed really worried about it, so he should probably explain. Hopefully it makes sense.

"Well, um, it's kind of a long story," he starts, fiddling with the blanket in his lap. "Basically, some stuff happened... And there's some people that don't... their hearts don't have anywhere to go. So I'm... Well, they're kind of living in my heart. Just for a while."

"Their hearts... don't have anywhere to go?"

That doesn't make any sense at all to Tamaki, and his face clearly shows it. If they don't have their hearts, aren't they dead? How can a heart live inside another person's?

"Possession?" But it doesn't feel at all like a ghost thing - Tamaki is sure his senses would have alerted him, if it were.

"No!" Sora frowns in frustration, crossing his arms. "They're not bad, and they're not ghosts. I told you, it's complicated. And... and it's my fault they're like this in the first place."

He barely understands the situation himself, so how can he possibly be expected to explain it to someone else?

"Not all ghosts are bad," he huffs, a little defensively. It's a weird position for him to take - a few months ago and he would have strongly disagreed with that - but he seems pretty certain of it. There's no reason for Sora to get offended at the suggestion of ghosts living in his heart!

"But they can go back eventually?" Sora did say it was just for a little while, so...

"Someday, I hope. I dunno how yet, but I'm gonna make it happen if I can. They deserve to live how they wanna live, you know?"

If that makes any sense at all. It might not, to someone who doesn't understand what he is.

Tamaki has no idea how that's supposed to work, but he can at least understand the idea of returning the people in his heart to the lives they want to live. Helping people is a desire he can grasp.

"Yeah. I hope you can help them."

⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

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