⇨ THE LUNAR SOLSTICE

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: Winter Breaks: Day 6 - Day 25
Where: THE MOON
What: The carnival journeys to one of its moons to celebrate the Lunar Solstice. More information here.
Warnings: Winter fun.

MOON WALKING↴ The journey to the moon only takes a blink of an eye, but it leaves the carnival far away beneath you. The second moon can be seen on the peripheral, massive compared to its usual view. At least when the holidays start out, there will be no notable wildlife on the moon, though this is something you can talk to the Ringmaster about if you think it needs a change. It sounds like this is the first time she's used it in quite a while - it probably needs some dusting off! Claim your cabins, and proceed to... well, do whatever you want! There is no rush and little obligation, besides to enjoy yourself. For real, this time. She promises there will be no vampires. Or, at least, none that don't already work for the carnival. ► CABINS: Living arrangements are character choice for this event, and there are a variety of cabins of various sizes, mostly built to house 2-6 people, though you can fit more in if you squish. They are all made of wood and of a rustic design - no fancy modern furniture, here! Each building is housed with a fireplace and the needed amenities. You can pick up materials to cook with the private kitchens if you like. Theoretically, you could spend the whole holiday sequestered away, watching the snow fall. Some of them also have outdoor hot tubs available! ► ACTIVITIES: Activities are mostly going to be character driven, though there will be some large group games like bingo and maybe a poker tournament happening at some point in one of the festival halls. Otherwise, there is a lot to offer: skiing, snowboarding, hiking, ice sculpting, snowball fights - it goes on! If you'd like to run a winter activity, just let the mods know, and we will get the word out there for you. ► FEASTING: Every day isn't a full-out feast because that would get a bit unhealthy, but there will be a number of specific feast events over the holidays where everyone is encouraged to let out their inner hedonist and stuff themselves. There will be one big feast per week, with smaller but also delicious meals offered in between. The feast dates will be B12, B18, and B24. There's also plenty of alcohol available for anyone who wants it. ► SHOPPING: As mentioned in the planning post, there is a massive market being run by the World Walker Caravan! The Ringmaster has given everyone 1250 credits to spend on items, but there is a caveat - must spend at least 500 of those credits on gifts for other people. And it better be a good one, if you only buy one! (She will ask that you do not buy her presents, however. She appreciates the sentiment, but it seems sort of silly buying her things with her own money! If you'd like to gift her, please have it be something more personal or handmade, but you are not obligated to get her anything at all.) ► TREATMENTS: The beginning of the holidays will also be about the time that the emergency Medical Team will have finalized their treatments for the Prince's poisoning. Watch out for further information on that - and make sure to get treated if you are suffering from petrification or poison induced illness! The holidays will be a lot more fun that way.

Comments

APPROVED!

[ringleaders]

829 credits spent in total.

[osteothropy]

Sans keeps looking at them, like he's hoping that staring long enough will make the image before him make more sense. It doesn't seem to. Worse yet, he can't even pull together a solid impression to take away. He can't say good riddance. He can't say 'you're forgiven.'

Is he ever going to know what to do with this? Is there ever going to be closure, now that he knows to what depths he was betrayed? Can a bad person become a good person, if they try hard enough? Can they make up for what they've done?

He's never really known the answer to these questions. He was easier when he posed them to other people.

As tempting as the idea of never having to deal with any of this ever again is, he knows that's now how it's going to work out. Someday, he'll have to deal, even if its in his own head. No matter where he is, those memories stay with him. He needs to learn how to make things right with himself as much as anyone else.

"Eh," he mumbles, partly defeated, partly dismissive, entirely unsure. "Maybe later."

And then he vanishes. Now that part is quintessentially Sans.

WHOOPS

[ringleaders]

This amounts to 1,275 which is 25 over budget.

Did a miss something that was returned?

[spaghettimonster]

He doesn't see her falling over, given the snow that's still filling his eyesockets, but he can hear that telltale flump. A

"That's it! You've won a pyrrhic victory, and we're done for," Papyrus declares, and spreads his limbs wide as he plops into the snow himself. Hopefully nobody gets whacked in the face with a wrist or anything; it's time they succumb to the snow drifts.

REFUND RETCON, I think

[spaghettimonster]

I'm coming up with 1,230 with the assumption that the sweater for Flowey was retconned. That was a cost of 50, 45 at discount, which matches with the discrepancy we've got. I think that's it.

[spaghettimonster]

"That's... a relief?" He's not completely sure, but it sounds like it should be. "Rebelling against the sky... I'm sure nothing good came of that."

Having a sky is still somewhat novel, after all. The stone ceiling of the world in the underground is kind of its own rebellion against the sky, cutting the monsters off from the blueness (and greyness, and blackness, and all other colornesses the sky could take on.)

[spaghettimonster]

"But," Papyrus says with another frown, moving on from the subject of science neither particularly knows or loves. "What about the shape of the snow. Could a snow dragon... become a water dragon?"

A water dragon sounds very cool. Like a river, but wiggling around through the sky instead of through the ground. Or like a large, oddly-shaped floating puddle.

[dirthena]

Her clan. That had been all that she wanted to do, as he knew -- return to them. Go back to being First, to eventually lead them as Keeper. Lavellan had strove to keep her grip upon what it meant to be Dalish throughout her time as Inquisitor, had brightly used her Dalishness to distress and disarm those who wanted her to do what they wished.

Lavellan doesn't look at him as she answers. "I have not seen my clan since I left for the Conclave. That is unlikely to change." For she knows the truth now -- she can never go back. "Skyhold is mine," she says, sure of that at least. "It was a gift; I should hardly wish to waste it."

And she will use it to stage her resistance against him now that he has left her no choice.

[dirthena]

Something about the way he describes his life tugs at a part of Lavellan that isn't given over to her goal, to simply making it through one day to face the next. What does one do, when you've outlived your purpose?

The ghost of her hand twinges, and for a moment a sympathetic expression crosses her face. Lavellan has avoided answering that question for herself as long as possible -- perhaps 9S will find an easier answer. After all, he's young, less set in his ways. It isn't as if he has only ever wanted to be one thing, only to find it based on lies, pulled out from under him by a man she thought--

It doesn't matter.

"Can you not find some other purpose?" Lavellan says, with a small shrug. "You fight a war on behalf of the humans, and yet gain nothing in return?" It seems almost like slavery. Perhaps she has more in common with him than she would like to admit ever sharing with someone who looks only barely into their teens.

[dressedtothe]

[Pod 153 helpfully flicks the lighter, the small flame lighting the joint. But when Syrlya starts coughing...]

Careful! You'll want to keep inhaling after you remove the tube. That should prevent the smoke from aggravating your throat.

[dressedtothe]

That's what Cole had told him. To find a new purpose, one that would make him happy. But the truth is that serving humans does make him happy. It's just...

Well, Cole's right that he wouldn't be happy if he went back home now.

9S shakes his head, she doesn't understand. "I was created to serve. I'm not born in the sense you are," he's assuming she's born, given the biological nature of her being, "but you could say I was 'born' a soldier. So fighting on behalf of my human creators is reward enough."

The joy of serving is what he gets in return.

"But finding another purpose is..." 9S wracks his brain, trying to find a way that would satisfactorially explain the situation. He doesn't know if Lavellan's experience is anything like Strange's experience of 'growing up', but... "For us androids, we're created with purpose in mind, serving from the moment we are 'born'. All my functions are designed specifically for my role in the war. I didn't learn how to scout. I am a scout. Does that make sense?"

D16

[scientificist]

Yukio's opinion of the holiday is really not far off from Herbert's own. He's been back and forth throughout it, only staying in his cabin long enough to satisfy what he feels the requirements for the 'vacation' are. Otherwise he's been studying his Noctis samples in his trailer, trying to synthesise the next step in his reagent.

And of course, eventually he needs more supplies, and what is the medical tent for if not that? Other studies as well, he supposes, and patients, but as a medic, and one of only two, he feels it appropriate for him to have free reign.

He comes up short, though, not too far beyond the entrance of the tent when he sees someone there, already digging through medical supplies himself. For a moment, Herbert watches silently, trying to get an idea of the young man's purpose, but eventually he decides to announce himself with a: "What are you doing."

[chronosynthesis]

[He offers the joint to 9S as the coughing starts to subside. When he turns back to him, it's with every intention of questioning how much 9S knows about this--and then he sniffs it. His face scrunches up as he breathes it in again. That scent is familiar...]

So, this is really your first time using this? [He raises a brow.]

[reflash]

Yukio turns with a smile, notebook held in his left hand and pen in his right. A slight bow, polite but not overly so.

“Hello, my name is Okumura Yukio. I have been assigned to work as a medic. Currently I am taking inventory of the existing medical supplies. Once I have accomplished that task, I intend to write up a list of supplies I believe are needed.”

He looks the stranger over, a quick glance to take in any weapons, injuries, fae changes, or anything else unusual. As for Yukio, his changes haven’t started yet. He’s dressed in his exorcist’s uniform, though the coat is open to accommodate his injured arm, and he didn’t bring the Doctor’s belt of vials with him to the Carnival.

[anti_nonsense]

"Good." Rita glances back at him, then quickly returns her gaze to the wares. "I can fly, just to be clear." She did, in fact, back in the manor... but she froze. Not just once, but twice. If she hadn't, she wouldn't have been captured.

"I just... need to do better," she adds through gritted teeth.

[lonesomewanderer]

He nods. That was her choice if she wanted to stay apart from her clan. Returning to them with what she knew now, the truth of their so-called Creators and legends was an unexpected burden for her. It was something he had almost told her when spoke the truth of her vallaslin, of what it had meant in his time.

"I would never take it from you." He wouldn't, at least. That he could promise. Others... That would be another battle she may have to face, if Ferelden and Orlais saw the resistance she was building as a threat to them. He would be facing much the same, but held no allegiance to any of them.

Curiosity has him ask his next question though he does not expect a real answer, "What will you do if they seek you out?"

[wild_magic]

Susan grins as he waits eagerly, rocking back on his feet as he watches Ginko come down.

"That sounds good! We can't get hurt too much if we fall from a low one, anyway." And he knows that one from experience; he's pretty good at climbing trees now himself, but when he was first living in the forest he definitely had some accidents.

[lonesomewanderer]

"As it should be," he says without hesitation. They could both agree on that, Solas found nothing more detestable than slavery. He would look forward to the fall of the Tevinter Imperium for that reason for it was built on the backs of others.

"It is the natural state of your world and yet you wish to regulate it? Or the beasts that are destroying your peoples?" The two were intertwined from what Syrlya said, but the goals could be separated.

[lonesomewanderer]

Strange as she is, he's willing to listen to what she has to say. Though his interest is far from the wardrobe choices made for the Carnival.

"Do many that come here bring their magic from home? Is it something that many can develop through time spent here?" As what seemed to happen to her. If it was a rarity as she seemed to imply before then perhaps one had to have innate magic already within them for it to matter.

[lonesomewanderer]

The name is helpful though with how long it takes Cole to find it, Solas wonders if the man will introduce himself as Commander rather than his actual name. At least he had both on hand now.

"Thank you, Cole. Is there anything else I should know?"

[lonesomewanderer]

Solas notes the aversion and wonders how the man will handle returning to his own world. A problem for 9S to solve in time, Solas had his own concerns to handle at the moment.

One of which 9S brings up and causes Solas' gaze to sharpen slightly. There were two that could describe and while he suspects it is Cole as the spirit has been here longer, the possibility that it was the Inquisitor is there.

"It was a parting I could not avoid," he returns. "If I could have said more, I would have."

Nevermind that he absolutely could have and refused to as it would ruin his plans.

[lonesomewanderer]

His brows go up. Necromancy seemed to be a popular skill in the carnival. At least he would know if he saw a skeletal dog wandering around, it was likely to be friendly rather than attack him on sight.

"A natural part of their world or created constructs?" he asks. These worlds that the carnival visited held his interest. He was always a wanderer at heart and was curious to see where they would end up after this break on the moon.

[lonesomewanderer]

Solas wondered what the others would make if they could hear this bird speak. They had thought he and Cole spoke cryptically, this was on another level.

"It is, yes. Are you another worker of the carnival?" A fae in a different form or perhaps another that's signed a contract? The Ringmaster appeared fond of collecting the odd.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya smiles faintly at that agreement. Solas deplores it as well, and Syrlya wonders if he's one of those who moves to change the world when faced with it.

But that's the same question Strange faced Syrlya with, as well, and he shakes his head. "It is hard for me to describe how much magic is building up in Tyria right now. We have never seen so much of it before."

He waves a hand in a vague gesture. "Magic is inherently volatile, and too much of it is... toxic. A decline into sickness and death if it does not just twist and tear you apart." He bites his lip once. "People have survived the rise of Elder Dragons. We won't survive destroying our world. That's why we need another way to stabilize it."

It's a rock and a hard place. And someone has to have figured it out, right? He hasn't hard of any other world having Elder Dragons, but he has heard of volatile and dangerous magic.

[lonesomewanderer]

The idea that too much magic ould be toxic is an idea foreign to Solas, but he lived in a time when magic was as simple as breathing. Living now in Thedas, with it so separated from the rest of the world was like living blind. Everything felt darker, bleaker. It was not a change he could adjust to, no matter how he had tried.

Syrlya's world is another matter, however. The dragons of Thedas weren't a threat to the stability of their world. That Syrlya's had that much at risk meant the man had his work cut out for him though Solas wondered if there weren't alternate paths to take. The Veil had been Solas' solution, but it was not one he would advocate for given his current goals.

"Then I wish you good fortunes in your research," he returns with a slight lift of his glass.