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

He smiles a little, though Doll can't see it. Maybe she can feel it, the way his chin presses into her head. "Yeah."

His mother gave him other things, too; his love of King's Pudding, his interest in the stars, his penchant for nicknames. His mother also gave him Aya, along with his father, but he prefers to forget about that old man's involvement in any of it.

"I just wish I could talk to her, sometimes." He'd like to tell her all kinds of things. He'd like to tell her about Doll. He thinks she would like her.

She rubs Tamaki's back gently, feeling more comfortable and warm than she had in a long time. She hopes Tamaki feels the same way, because the next thing that comes to her mind seems dangerous. They've already been through so much, does she really have to bring up painful things?

"Um..." Doll taps her fingers nervously on his back. "What would ya say, if y'could?"

"Mm..." He seems to think about that for a moment, leaning into Doll's touch. It's not so painful that he can't talk about it, especially because he knows Doll is understanding. She only wants to get to know him more.

"I'd tell her... about all the friends I have now. And about how they're nice to me. And I'd tell her that the agency I work for back home takes care of me."

He blushes a little, looking down at her. "And... I'd want to tell her about you."

Doll imagines that for Tamaki's mom, nothing would be more important than knowing that her child was happy and taken care of. She's happy to hear it, honestly, never really doubting that Tamaki was alright in his own world until that very second. Maybe she should have wondered, but he'd always seemed warm enough to be alright.

She looks up at him, her face a little pink. "Me? Why me?"

Even the hypothetical meeting of Tamaki's mom is enough to make Doll worry about being good enough for her son.

"Eh?" He turns pink to match, looking down at her. "Isn't that kinda normal? To tell your mom when you..."

He turns redder, looking away at the tarp walls of the tent, suddenly finding them more interesting to look at than Doll's face.

"You were my first kiss and... the first girl I really like, so..."

Ah, now this is really embarrassing.

Doll stares at Tamaki's chin, her mouth slightly agape. She's been stunned into silence and it takes her a few moments to figure out what she wants to say to that. It's flattering to be sure, and touching that Tamaki wishes Doll could meet someone clearly so important to him. But in the end, she gets stuck on one thing.

"...how 'm I yer first? Have y'seen yerself in a mirror?"

That is the most confusing part of this conversation.

"Huh?" He actually gives that some thought. "Well, I guess some girls like me because I'm hot." And modest. "And they think they can get on TV if they date me. But I usually just ignore those girls."

Those girls are more interested in taking advantage of him than actually dating him. He's learned that the hard way.

"The girls I know at school are just friends."

And he's asked a girl out and been turned down, but he doesn't want to admit his embarrassing failures.

"'Get on TV'?" Clearly that's not going to be a problem with Doll-- she's squinting at the phrase and wondering what a teevee is, and why someone would want to climb on it. It must be really great though, if some girls would knowingly treat Tamaki so shabbily to get what they wanted.

"Ya never know!" Doll argues, poking at Tamaki's chest. "I betcha some 'a yer friends have thought about what it's like ta kiss ya! Girls think about this stuff, even if it's just a thought."

"Ah, really?" He blushes. He doesn't really know what to think of his girl friends thinking of kissing him, not that he's never thought of kissing someone himself. "Girls aren't that different from boys, I guess..."

He can't help but find this line of conversation really embarrassing, so he changes subject to her other question.

"TV is like... a box with moving pictures? They record stuff to play on it. Since I'm on TV a lot, girls want to date me. Then they can be on TV too."

He hopes that explanation makes sense.

"Guess not..." Personally, Doll thinks it's fascinating, and a little encouraging, that boys think about the same things girls do. But Tamaki seems a little nervous, so she'll let it go for the moment.

Doll wrinkles her nose, trying to imagine a box with moving pictures being fascinating enough that someone would want to be on it. But in the end, all she can imagine is moving paintings, which seems a little creepy and maybe boring?

"...Is it like a radio, but with pictures? So lots of people can watch it?"

His explanation left something to be desired.

"Mm... kind of." He tries to think of how better to put it. "But it's like... if they could watch you, while you film the radio show. Like through a window."

He mimes a box with his hands. "So the screen is the window. And you can see what other people do through it. So people film shows for the fans' entertainment. And then they watch it on the box."

He's afraid he might just be getting more confusing, honestly.

"Ohhh..." No, she's slowly getting it! If people could use radios to talk across distances, the idea that pictures, performances, et cetera could be tossed across distances too isn't too far-fetched an idea.

"So, they want a buncha people ta see them on th'box? Hmm..." Doll looks thoughtfully at Tamaki's chest again. "I guess it'd be swell if I could perform f'r a whole lot of people, 'stead 'a jus' whoever's in th'tent."

⇨ THE PRINCE IS DEAD

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