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

"Oh. I didn't know this place had mercenaries. My friends are... were..." She bites her lip in thought, settling on the right words, the right phrasing, especially when she's not even sure if they're dead or alive now.

She gives a flicker of a small smile and a shrug. "We were kind of mercenaries too. Heists and stuff for money? They were teaching me so that I could stay safe, 'cause yeah that life - and I guess this life too? - 's kinda dangerous."

"Oh yeah?" She doesn't look like much of a mercenary, but he supposes that's what the training part was for. Lambert quirks a brow as she wavers between tenses, but doesn't comment. That sounds like it's opening up a can of worms for potential baggage.

"It's not always like the manor, but yeah, we've had our share of trouble. Can't expect much else when you're crossing between worlds, I guess." He shakes his head slightly. "Won't hurt to stay in practice, but it would be better if you could find a sparring partner."

"Yup!" The training was helping with that at least, as far as defending herself goes, but really the "not looking like a mercenary" thing has proved to work in her favor some in the past.

What Lambert is telling her is pretty much what she's been hearing from most people so far, that the manor was a little More than usual, but that getting into trouble wasn't uncommon here. It doesn't sound too bad to Five. Maybe just the right level of adventure?

"Yeah," she laughs easily. "There's only so much you can do practicing by yourself and against stationary targets," she agrees, then gives a nod of her chin in his direction. "Hey... You were hurt, before. Are you feeling better now?"

There's maybe a hint of a 'are you doing well enough to even be out here' in that tone somewhere, but she doesn't put the words to it. Not like she's known him long enough to be judgey!

Oh, Lambert can hear the implication well enough (if only because the sentiment's already been directed at him enough times for him to know what it sounds like) but he waves it off -- literally, wiggling his fingers in the air and shaking his head.

"I've had worse." Which isn't, well, 'I'm okay,' but yes, he's feeling better. "If I have to spend my time sitting around on my ass anyway, I might as well do it out here instead of indoors. Besides," and he shoots her a smirk. "This way I get free entertainment when people mess up."

And he can heckle his nightrunners about stupid shit. That's definitely one reason to be out here.

Five rolls her eyes at Lambert's response, a move that definitely befits her age, but there's still a smile on her face. Honestly, his attitude is so much like Three that it's not only amusing, it's also kind of... nostalgic, maybe? It makes her miss him more, anyway.

"Uh huh. Well, I guess you have a point... About the indoors versus outdoors thing, anyway. Seems like this is the kind of place it would be hard to get bored?" A little bit of a guess and a little bit of a question both. "It's very... different, than where I'm from."

She means the whole carnival, not just the training grounds, of course.

"What, you mean you don't usually sign up for contracts to get out from under the thumb of nasty fae lords?" Lambert widens his eyes in exaggerated shock, though he only manages to keep it up for a few moments before he snorts, relaxing back into that faintly amused mockery.

"It's different from a lot of places," he shrugs. "At least you're not alone in that." He pauses, thinking back. Since she'd been talking to Celandine on the radio at the time, it's going to take him a bit to recall where they'd left that conversation off...

"You said you work in repairs and thievery." He smirks. "Met both your supervisors yet?" Childermass and Peridot couldn't be more of a contrast...

"Sort of?"

Which is a vague not-answer, but maybe it's understandable seeing how it's been chaos lately and everyone seems to be working on pretty specific things already. Things that Five has zero expertise on, like making a cure. She can maybe bring wounded and poisoned people some water and that's probably the extent of it. So... mostly she's just been trying to keep out from under foot since she's joined, until she's actually needed.

Still, she clarifies without prompting: "One of them I saw briefly in like an... engineering meeting kind of thing? Back in the Prince's realm. Not much time for introductions." That was Peridot. Childermass was actually the one who actively rescued her from the manor when it was collapsing, but technically he wasn't yet her supervisor at the time. "And the other I... haven't seen since I was brainwashed and he pulled me through some shadows while I babbled like an idiot."

At least, looking back she feels like she babbled like an idiot. Yet the way she says it is rather matter-of-fact.

That gets another snicker out of him. "Sounds like Childermass, all right. He tends to have that effect on people." He also seems to be getting a habit of yanking them through shadows. That would just make Five one of many poor souls to be intimidated by the stoic magician, but to be fair, everyone babbles compared to Childermass, so it's a natural enough feeling.

"Don't think the Carnival's going to have much stealing for you to do for a while." Really, though, he wonders what their next stop's going to end up being like, at this rate. It'll take a lot to top the Manor for unpleasant places they've visited, but that's just an invitation for the universe to prove him wrong. "Enjoy the break while it lasts."

He was pretty quiet. And carrying a sword. He could have passed for Four, once upon a time.

Five gives a little shrug. It's not the picking pockets that she misses. "I'm pretty ready to get back to fixing things, if you want to know the truth. I... like to fiddle with stuff. And there was a lot of stuff I could fiddle with back on my ship, but... I don't know about here..."

She's a little afraid she's gonna choose the wrong device to fiddle with and make someone mad at her. Like her boss, or the Ringmaster. She's never had a boss before. Two was sort of her boss but she was really more a friend.

⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

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