⇨ 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

[puddingemote]

"Ah, yeah... time is weird here."

There's also the really probable conclusion that Cole and Tamaki aren't from the same universe at all.

"I might not even be from your world. And like, I'm from way in the future? I have a cellphone and TV and stuff."

He's going to assume Cole doesn't know what any of those things are, because look at him.

[hurtcomfort]

"What's a cellphone?"

Cole doesn't know what those things are to begin with. He's super curious, however, and there's a little trace of awe in his voice to go with the confusion.

[puddingemote]

"It's a phone you carry with you. You use it to call people. And it can do lots of other stuff."

He fishes around in his pocket and pulls out his own - it's largely useless here in the Carnival, but he carries it with him out of a sense of habit, and occasionally plays games that don't need the internet. He holds it out for Cole; it's a standard modern smartphone.

"I can't make calls here. But you can look."

[hurtcomfort]

Cole leans in, peering at the cellphone like it's some new and astonishing piece of technology—which for Mr. Fantasy Canon over here, it is.

"What else can it do?" Because he has absolutely no idea what the heck that can do in the first place.

[puddingemote]

"You can get apps that do almost anything." The possibilities are indeed endless in the future! "But I mostly use it to play games."

He taps around on the phone, then pulls up a puzzle game, one of those where you move the blocks around and try to line up the same colors so they get destroyed. He play this particular one offline.

"See?" he asks, holding it out for Cole to look at.

[hurtcomfort]

What the hell's an app? But games, Cole knows games, he can get that much. And Tamaki seems to be getting the phone to work by tapping on it? That's honestly impressive and Cole can't help but look on in surprise.

"How do you move the blocks?"

[puddingemote]

"You tap on them and then slide, like this."

Tamaki shows him, tapping on a block and moving it, showing how it switches with another block to form a solid line and disappear with a sparkle.

"You try to do as many as you can, before the time limit."