⇨ 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

[pipers_son]

"Ha ha." Even when his eyes are closed and his laugh comes out a little sluggish, hey, at least he's laughing. "Yer bein' courted already. Wendy's gonna get so upset if ya go and get married and she's not here ta be a part of all of it."

Well. Her and Tamaki might not get married. Traveling carnivals and circuses are ephemeral just by design. He's found, whether in mortal ones or those run by a fae, that sometimes that goes down to people and relationships too. After all, so many people have homes they jus want to return to, and to leave all the strangeness of the carnival right where it is. Leave things where one found them.

...Still. They'll all be looking for a new home away from England. Young love can be a surprising thing. Who knows. There's no rushing it, whatever the result.

[steadydollypegs]

"Wh-what?! No, Joker!" Doll whines, burying her face in Joker's back as though the blush will rub off. "'M not gettin' married, jeez, was jus' one kiss!"

You're killing her here, Joker. Plus, Doll is fairly sure that it is way too early to be talking about matrimony when she doesn't even know the first thing about Tamaki's family, friends, the specifics of his job... They just play charades really well together and Doll thinks he's quite handsome.

[pipers_son]

Predictably, Joker's clothing is not at all helpful to rubbing blushes away, and might just make it worse. It's not his usual well worn clothes, after all. In the meantime, he just keep sleepily muttering out teases. "Bet that's what Sleepin' Beauty said, too. And Snow White."

[steadydollypegs]

"Sleepin' Beauty 'n Snow White prob'ly weren' even awake when they got kissed. Don't make any sense why they got married right away after a sleepin' kiss, just weird."

She rests her forehead against Joker's back, frowning while she ponders if maybe those fairy tales weren't entirely truthful about there being only one kiss involved, but ultimately her focus goes back to Joker and how tired he sounds.

"Hey, y'see the dress I got? I could tell ya 'bout it."

[pipers_son]

"It's a story," he says, the patience in the tone more a force of habit than anything else. Things like that stick around when one is the designated oldest sibling and, more importantly, the story teller. After all, none of them had ever had proper mothers and fathers who cared about reassuring their children of happily ever afters and how evil people could be defeated. That was a role he'd had to take on himself. Not his first lies, but certainly never his last. "If ya got told all the specifics, ya would be bored out of yer skull."

That much, Joker is fairly certain about. The more money that gets involved, the more ridiculous figuring marriage out is.

There are probably a few other things he could point out, like yes Sleeping Beaut was in fact asleep, but he doesn't feel like getting into it right now. Instead, Joker makes a small noise of affirmation. "Tell me about it anyway, yeah?"

[steadydollypegs]

"When I was small, but now--" Doll blushes and pushes her face further into Joker and speaks directly to his back. "--now I don' know how these things are supposed ta go." And like hell is she going to ask Joker to give her dating advice. She'd ask Beast if she could, but not Joker, that's way too embarrassing.

But embarrassment aside, she's surprised to hear Joker even saw her at the ball. She figured he wouldn't be looking for her, or maybe had already been gone. It gives her a whole new lump in her throat to realize that no matter what she thinks, Joker's always going to be making sure she's around and alright.

"Was blue," she starts lamely. "Was kind of surprised it was a dress, they'd been givin' me breeches all week. Think some 'a those servants actually thought I was a boy." Tired sigh. "Well. Was a dress, was blue 'n silver. Had some, yanno, sun designs..."

[pipers_son]

Well, even if she doesn't want advice from Joker, now she's sure as hell getting it. A poisoned soul is one that's running on autopilot. "Same as anythin' else, I suppose," he says, finishing the sentence off with a yawn. "But more kissin'." And other things, but he'll save that for later. And maybe mostly for Tamaki.

Listening to Doll go on is a nice reprieve to his buzzing and bumbling thoughts, and he makes a small noise when she starts to trail off. "Matches ya. Good colors, they fit ya."

[steadydollypegs]

'More kissin'.' Excellent. She definitely wanted to have this conversation with Joker and her face is definitely not burning up and in danger of setting Joker's shirt on fire. "Alrightalrightalright! That's enough'a that!" she cries. Mercy Joker, mercy-- she's already navigating choppy waters.

"Yeah, I liked it. Maybe more than all the white I usually wear..." she muses, reaching to curl one of her fingers into Joker's hair and play with it gently. "Was real heavy, actually. In a kinda nice way though, it made me feel... like somethin' important was gonna happen that night."

[pipers_son]

"Ha." He regrets nothing and apologizes for about as much. Still, he'll be nice to her in a way that definitely has nothing to do with how sick he is. Believe him.

"We'll remember that for some time, then." Another yawn, and his ears twitch at the feeling of his hair being messed with. "But then ya always look good in whatever colors. S'not biased or whatnot."

[steadydollypegs]

"Been wearin' white so much, never really stopped ta think about another color," she admits, putting a random little braid in the hair she's playing with. Anything to feel like things are alright, and normal.

"Maybe I'll ask f'r a nice fiery red costume ta perform in, yeah? S' a nice, happy color."

Not biased or whatnot.

[pipers_son]

"And orange, and yellow," he tells the big top's top, smiling a little bit and more out of it than he'd admit if asked.

"Make ya look like a sunrise walkin' across the rope."

[steadydollypegs]

That's a nice image, and very different from the usual cool, flower-laden image she puts off. Trying to emulate a sunrise sounds much more... her. Maybe.

"Think I'd like that. Maybe more 'n all those flowers I usually wear..." And she's already thinking of designs, colors, fabrics...

"Hey Joker. C'n I sleep right here with ya? M' real tired, all of 'a sudden." 'All of a sudden', of course. It's not like she hears how Joker's voice seems to be drifting off as he talks, and she wishes he'd just say something if he wanted to rest. Apparently this is how they're going to play the game though.

[pipers_son]

"Flowers can be a part of sunrise." Does that make sense? Maybe it doesn't, considering the words are followed by a small yawn afterwards. Oh well. He'll tell Carly about it later, assuming he can remember.

For now, he stretches his wing a little more, just to make room. "Always," he murmurs, pressing his nose into her hair. If they're going to be stuck together in this sort of place, then she's always good to stay with him.

[steadydollypegs]

Flowers can be sunrise colors so sure, it makes sense. Maybe what her costume needed was just a little color on the flowers... But that's something she can think about later.

For now, Doll burrows a little closer to Joker's chest and wraps her arms around his waist. The arm under him will probably fall asleep soon, but that's alright, this is more important. Feeling connected to Joker and knowing he at least still felt comfortable being close to her is worth a few pins and needles in the morning.

"Sleep well Joker. I'll be right here."