⇨ 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

[stillwinningthehardway]

"I'm comfortable with me. There's only so much I can do, and I'm doing it, and that's not going to matter, I don't know, twenty percent of the time," Scout insists crossly.

She is not glad of the subject change and sighs, looking pained. "I managed to clear my head after a while. When you set a table on fire I decided to take some people over the roofs to try to talk to the house or find the rose. It didn't work. Actually, that's how Joker and Rita were captured. I did meet Childermass's group."

Tràkata murmurs, "Papyrus came too. I was surprised at how capable he was."

[whattaprick]

Yeah, it's time to give Scout a quizzical look, brows nearly shooting to his hairline (no mean feat, considering how far up it is).

"You tried to talk to the house? On the roof?" He can't say his own plan was much better, overall, but at least that didn't involve getting on a slippery building in the middle of a storm. Lambert grimaces at the mental image. If nothing else, it's a remarkably effective distraction from his own pain, and he shifts his weight, narrowing his eyes.

"You're lucky you didn't break your necks," Celandine chimes in, sitting up. "Rita did mention she was caught on the roof ... but she never said she was with you. What happened?"

[stillwinningthehardway]

Scout rolls her eyes. "I couldn't really try in the middle of a party or go deeper into the mansion with people everywhere! There was even a little curtained off alcove out of sight and people were fornicating in it, so that was a no."

That's a very old fashioned word for it. She doesn't seem scandalized, at least?

"Gargoyles happened," she said shortly. "If you'd met them maybe you could have compared notes. There were lots and lots of gargoyles."