⇨ 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

[kingsroads]

"We went to Atlantis and we all turned into mermaids." Just said in the most nonchalant tone possible...but Strange can't hide the little grin on his face. Because mermaids! That's absolutely amazing! At least in his mind, turning into mermaids and breathing underwater is just the sort of wonderful, amazing thing that only could accomplished through magic.

The more he talks, the more that nonchalant grin fades and Strange expresses just how friggen cool it all is.

"The scales match what my fins and tail looked like when we were there. The Ringmaster turned us all into mermaids so we could breathe and get around underwater and then turned us back when the carnival left."

[brightspot]

It's probably exactly the kind of reaction that Strange is expecting, but Five's eyes widen and brighten at the mention of mermaids. Because uh, hell yeah that's cool!

There's sort of an odd mixture of feelings swirling in her though between excitement, gratitude, and guilt. She feels at first lucky that she wound up here, to get to be a part of such cool, amazing things, but... Then guilty, because she should be back in her own universe or world or whatever, finding out if her friends are still alive and everything else is okay. Like always, her emotions are easy to read, flickering across her face before she bites her lip and shakes her head to get back to the pleasant part of this conversation.

"So... Was it like super easy to swim or did it take a while getting used to having a tail like that?"

[kingsroads]

"At least for me, it took a while. I can barely swim in the first place, waking up underwater with a tail only made it harder." Strange's admission that he's an awful swimmer is said in a matter-of-fact tone. There's no use denying it. He just is. But, one at least learns how to move around when they're literally and metaphorically thrown into the deep end.

"I had gotten good enough at it by the end of our stay. Of course, the problem here is that swimming with a tail is radically different from swimming with two legs. Different muscles, and all that."

[brightspot]

Being thrown into the deep end in order to learn something is definitely a method that Five is familiar with. Even if swimming she only really knows from having done it in another person's memories. She doesn't find it strange at all that he doesn't much know how to swim, and she nods in understanding about the different muscles. That makes sense.

"Mermaids. That's so cool." She's still not over it. "What did you all do there? What was Atlantis like?"

[kingsroads]

"It was amazing. Under water is full of so much vibrant life, both plant and animal, that I didn't know existed in the first place!" Strange's tone is just full of wonder as he continues talking. To nobody's surprise, the 1810s weren't exactly all that good with things like 'scuba technology' and 'discovering fish that lived in the depths of the oceans.' Add in the fact that Strange hasn't ever been to the tropics and there was just a whole new world of fish and plants for him to discover.

"While we were there, I performed for the merfolk, of course, but some other members of the carnival and I fought a giant crab and met the king of Atlantis."

He also bought a super cursed item but well, that's neither here nor there. What Five doesn't know won't hurt her.

[brightspot]

"And... why'd you have to fight a giant crab?" She looks more amused by that bit than anything, though all of it in general is still just... Way too cool. She misses home and her friends like crazy of course, but hearing about all the cool places she might be able to go while she's here... Well, that helps a bit.