⇨ 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

[whattaprick]

"Good." Lambert's expression remains skeptical, but at the very least, he's willing to see how it goes. "Obviously, you still have to do it within the Ringmaster's rules. And the rest of the carnival is..." More moral than Lambert is, for one. "...squeamish, so don't come up with something no one's going to try because they think it's too creepy or gross."

A pause.

"You actually going to remember all of this, or do I need to write it down?" Maybe he'll write it down anyway, just to make sure he remembers what the hell he even asked Foster to do in the first place.

[criticallyfucked]

Foster had no intention of breaking the Ringmaster's rules, but he's patently unoffended by the suggestion that he would. Nor is he insulted by the ininuations of his incompetence--they're true, after all. He's not useful because he's reliable or intelligent, he's a dangerous, disgusting dreck whose loyalties and competence--no, even his basic understandings--can't be mistrusted enough....!

"Too creepy or gross," he echoes, nonplussed. "How do I--how do I know what's  too creepy or gross?"

Isn't the fact that he's involved automatically repulsive? Too creepy or gross--should he hide his involvement, then?

[whattaprick]

Lambert stares back. He's absolutely the worst arbiter for judging 'creepy and gross' that Foster could have asked for, so it takes a bit of a struggle to come up with a list of guidelines that would probably fit what the rest of the carnival would think of.

"Try not to come up with something that requires anyone getting naked or their body fluids." That's probably a good one to start with, right? Lambert scowls. How much of this does he need to spell out? "That's usually what people have the most problems with."

[criticallyfucked]

"...I was planning to keep others out of the process as much as possible," he deadpans, although he turns his head to eye Lambert out of the corner of his eye. Half apprehension, half evasion. This may come as a shock, but Foster is not the kind of person--or person shaped object--who trusts others, and he has no plans to involve others in his magic process as much as he can avoid it.

So far, this doesn't seem... impossible. Nudity was not... he can't even imagine how nudity would get mixed up in a spell ritual. He's not a new age pentacles and crystals mage, he's not one of those 'dancing naked in the moonlight' mages.

That said, he doesn't think to ask whether his own blood counts as a 'bodily fluid' in this situation. So there's. That.

[whattaprick]

"You're going to have to eventually. I want to make sure it works properly." Lambert shrugs.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now..." He looks Foster over again, critically, then snorts. "You don't look like you're in much shape to do anything."

CW: self-deprivation, disordered eating

[criticallyfucked]

"Hahaha!"

Foster's laughter is loud and slightly mocking. "This? It's fine! It's fine." His tone, meant on some level to be reassuring, is also decidedly threatening. Miraculously, he drops it there.

Well, it's not much of a miracle--maybe just a mystery no one wants an answer to. It's possible he's just in a good mood because Lambert gave him something--a service, a project, a purpose--then again, maybe he's just fucking tired. This is not actually the first time Foster's just starved himself, but 'poisoned and partially petrified' isn't doing much for his stamina. Breathing hurts pretty much constantly. He'll have to do something about that.

"Don't worry! I'll have something for you."

He smiles.

[whattaprick]

"Can't be useful if you're about to fall over," Lambert points out, complacently. There isn't any real concern in his voice there, it's just a statement of fact. Though reminded of the cause of that, he frowns slightly. They're going to have to fix that, sooner or later, and not for Foster's sake.

He pushes his bench away from the table, rising to his feet.

"I'll be counting on it," he says simply. Maybe it's an implied threat, maybe Lambert just doesn't know how to talk outside sounding vaguely threatening all the time, who knows. "You know how to find me when you do."

And maybe he really will write this down, just in case, because he doesn't trust Foster not to weasel out of it.