⇨ 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

[scientificist]

"No, you can't," is Herbert's equally immediate, dry response.

But then Foster starts getting worked up and Herbert almost starts to doubt his ability here. Drunken Foster is an unknown quantity to everyone except him right now. This is new territory: experimental Foster.

"Control you," he says, and stands up from the chair. "Because you're unable to control yourself? Are you asking for more?" His eyes flicker down to the ruined bread roll and back up to look at Foster. "If you'd prefer to wallow in your own filth go, ahead, but as I've told you I require you alive. I'm not interested in owning you. I need your brain for my reagent, nothing more."

[criticallyfucked]

Because you're unable to control yourself?

Foster has never felt in control, never felt 'controlled' in any fashion at all. He only ever feels the lack of it--there is no power, no force great enough to curb him, he is always spiralling wider and wilder out of control. The dizzying ascent, the infinite descent: a precipice on which he stands with one foot already over the ledge--daring someone, anyone, to stop him, catch him, push him over to his final inevitability...!

And Herbert has miscalculated by engaging him, by seizing him on that edge and then letting go. Because Foster moves to seize him--dropping the roll of bread, eyes bright, claws spread to catch Herbert by the black of his tie--!

[scientificist]

Ok well that didn't work WHOOPS--experiment going wrong, as per usual, variables not accounted for, this is BAD, abort? Abort being right there in the danger zone first and then try and handle it?

The usual.

Herbert backs hurriedly away from Foster and stumbles onto and then sideways around the chair. "Thiiiii-his solves nothing!" he announces with equal speed, holding up a hand, eyes already wild.

[criticallyfucked]

Normally, Herbert would have been in no danger. Normally, Foster is subservient by default--by force of his own will, he remains in his place even despite the foolishness and negligence of those around him. Normally, he never would have dared to touch another person. Or their tie.

But the tie slips between his claws, and he has to catch himself--in more ways than one, because the dizziness and nausea rise swiftly, lurching up in him as he grabs the edge of the bed instead, eyes on Herbert until the last second, when he narrowly avoids throwing up right onto the floor.

Even with disaster (or at least regurgitation) avoided, though, the inside of his head is ringing. No, screaming, a wailing unitone like a siren, growing higher and higher and louder and more distant, and he briefly feels an increased density inside of his skull, which subsides only partway in the next second, leaving him feeling... stranger, but somehow more present.

"You need... you need my brain," he manages, and in speaking, he opens his mouth; in opening his mouth, saliva stretches between his upper teeth and his bottom lip, hanging in a string from that latter same.

"My brain, without me? The brain... the brain is rot, the brain is rot and you want the rot without the rotting?" It's kind of impressive that he hasn't fallen off the bed, because he's looking strangely drawn and pale. He sucks some of that spittle back into his mouth, but it just makes his words... wetter. "I am my disease," he spits. "I am my disease, I am my disease, there is no brain, no brain without disease, no brain without rot--"

Another ragged breath--

"I am the rot!!"

[scientificist]

Herbert is still standing beyond the chair, wary, but his hand slowly lowers. He's feeling abruptly very worked up about this. It may be the adrenaline, certainly, but he wants to put words to what he's thinking all the same.

"Then you will be nothing." He's still a bit breathless but his voice is usually soft anyway, at least, so that comes out low, and shaking. "I will make you nothing and rebuild you into something new, with my science." Stopping to properly catch his breath he gestures forward at Foster, fingers spindling through and clutching at the air. "Better! I...will remake you as my creation!"

[criticallyfucked]

Foster already is nothing--the roiling, sucking nothing of a vaccum; the crushing, absolute black nothing of oceanic depths; the vast, utter nothing of the Void itself. He was nothing when he was born and he will be nothing when he expires. In between, he is contagion, infectious affliction of the mind, a waste of his body--an insult to the very act of being alive.

And from this, from the defiling of hope, Herbert plans to make anew? To make his--?

The idea of being a construct, a product of one's achievement, the culmination of design, the firmament on which something is to be created anew inspires a terrible excitement in Foster. In this way, he's finally starting to feel that intoxication. In more ways than one.

"You will unmake me," Foster responds--not an exultation, but an accusation. "You will destroy the purpose of my only fate."

When Foster spits the words, he does so... pretty literally.

So, good thing Herbert put space between them.

He sounds increasingly desperate--not a lament, not a plea.

Hope is antithetical to him, belief being a form of certainty beyond mere aspiration or dreams. And he knows what is and isn't meant to be.

"And how will you have me, then--!?"

[dressedtothe]

9S opens his mouth, and then closes it again.

"That's... true, I guess."

After all, Adam and Eve were hardly androids -- they can't possibly be mimicking humans! -- even though they looked like them, right down to the lack of...

And androids aren't humans, no matter how close to them they may appear.

"So if you tried to drink something, it would make you ill? Kill you?"

[dressedtothe]

[9S holds up the paper he bought, answering the question neatly, before setting it on the nearby table. There's a plate right next to it.]

I've never seen it done with a pipe before. If that was something humans did, we don't have records of it.

[He gestures to the plate.]

Pour some out on there. We'll need to break it up a bit.

[dressedtothe]

9S blinks slowly at both Cole and Rita, the edges of his visual systems filling with static. Pink static. Well, the merchant was right about it being relaxing; 9S suddenly plonks himself on the floor. That was intentional. Yeah. Sitting on the floor is way better than standing up.

A few seconds after Rita's comment, 9S bursts out into abrupt laughter. "Aw, come on, Rita!" he wheezes between fits of giggles. "You're just upset you're missing out!"

[dressedtothe]

9S still doesn't see how any of that is his fault! He still doesn't see how Rita could even interpret that as a love confession! At no point did he mention the word 'love' in anything he said!

(Though, really, would he even say it, if he did actually love her? The words never made it out his mouth to 2B.)

But he doesn't really want to be going around in circles about what they talked about at the ball; the fewer reminders of the time at the Prince's manor, the better.

"Riiight," he says doubtfully, his attempt at humouring her. "What about the other reasons?"

[dressedtothe]

[So in other words, nothing to worry about!

9S carefully skates around Yuya in a circle before slowing to a stop next to him. That seems to be the method he'd noticed most people using to stop.]

Alright!

[9S pumps a fist, grinning. This will be just like racing Speed Star, only far less annoying! Probably!]

I'm ready!

[dressedtothe]

Siobhan is a rather more attractive topic than existential crises, true. "I guess if you have a daemon you're never really alone, even when you're by yourself," 9S muses.

No wonder the people in Greysol seemed so happy...

"Oh, before you get back to scupting, I have a gift for you."

He'd never really thought about giving gifts -- other than to 2B -- until the Ringmaster mandated that they needed to spend some of the money on others. It'd be nice to give a little something back to the people who have helped him.

"It's small," he assures Strange, "so you won't have to worry about finding a place to store it while you finish your sculpture."

[kingsroads]

"If we ask her help in designing the maze, she might help construct it as well." And though Strange believes that his magic is perfectly capable of getting the job done by itself, it's always good to have an extra pair of hands about, especially when one of those hands is fae as hell. "I'd welcome any sort of assistance!"

[hurtcomfort]

There's an awkward pause because Cole's waiting for Yuya to start up the hill. Once he realizes what's going on, however, Cole starts to trudge back up the hill. He's moving carefully through the snow so the likelihood that Yuya beats him up the hill is pretty high.

Once they're up there, Cole just stands and waits, waiting for Yuya to set the sled down and sit down again. Because he's not steering, let's put the tiny person in front.

[hurtcomfort]

"That's a thing?" Cole doesn't have any memories of human education or monster education. As such, he's never heard of the term 'water cycle' before. Still...it does sound like a very efficient way of doing something and a good term that could be used to describe all of this.

"It sounds right," he admits, with a little shrug.

STEVEN UNIVERSE | OTA

[starseedling]

[dressedtothe]

9S shakes his head. "Other than the communal channels, which you can easily tune into if you do this," 9S demonstrates on his device, "numbers to individuals need to be given."

This is so old fashioned, really.

"My number's 81.93139, sooo if you ever need assistance..."

SHOPPING | B7 - B15 | OTA

[starseedling]

Steven is instinctively drawn to the markets, both because they are both of beautiful things, and also because he's excited about this whole holiday gift giving thing! Sure, they have gift giving holidays back home, but nothing quite like what a lot of the others are describing. The main holiday he seems to have in common with other Earths is New Years, and even that doesn't have as big of a present focus as a lot of this other stuff does.

It's exciting! Wandering around the different stores, there are so many things that make him think of his friends, it's hard to narrow down - he's never had this much money to spend on something like this before, and there's certainly plenty of stuff that draws his attention as well.

He'll start fawning about this or that to pretty much anyone who is nearby, too - even if he doesn't know you very well. Everyone is a target.

[hurtcomfort]

[ Cole can spot that lack of conviction from a mile away. So he gives Lavellan a little frown, a tiny 'if you say so' sort of frown. She knows she's Lavellan. But who is Lavellan when put in a new situation? With nothing to compare herself to or define herself by? ]

As long as you think that and remember that, it's good. It's easier for you to find the you if you don't worry too much.

[hippocarnival]

[Maybe 9S is just a very quick learner? Yuya keeps his fingers up, curling them down as he counts down.] One... two... three, go!

[And then he zips off immediately, building up speed as quickly as he can to try and take the early advantage.]

[chronosynthesis]

[Syrlya tips the bag over and shakes it, pouring a little less than half the contents onto the plate. Well, if it's too much they can put it back in.

He starts crushing the leaves further between his fingers.] I would imagine much of that history has been lost due to the destruction of everything.

[hurtcomfort]

Cole doesn't like this. He can feel himself breathe, can feel all his skin, everything seems to be slowing down and this shouldn't happen.

9S starts giggling, Cole starts getting twitchy. He's wringing his hands together as he looks from 9S to Rita then back to 9S. While 9S is on the floor, Cole starts to pace slightly, walking in a circle. "She shouldn't be upset," Cole murmurs, more to himself than the other two. "This is odd."

[hurtcomfort]

"Then that is good," Cole responds, with a little bit of a nod. Because it is! If Anghel is comfy and doesn't need any more things, then Cole won't get him any more things. It's as simple as that.

"You're just as new," he points out the obvious. "What do you need explained? I can find answers."

[dirthena]

Pod 153. And... whatever it is they're doing that seems to be an understood gesture between the two of them. Lavellan watches it with curiosity, even if most of the words she doesn't understand or have the context to. But she thinks she puts it together well enough.

Well, until he says androids, which clearly means nothing to her. "I'm sorry-- androids like you?" It's not a term she's familiar with, so her curiosity overcomes her. She'll ply him with questions as long as he indulges her, honestly. "So you're not human." Well, humans normally didn't just have white hair, Lavellan supposed, that was more of an elf thing.

[osteothropy]

Item Purchased: Video Camera
Gift?: Yes
Total Item Cost: 67
Credits Spent: Sans (67)
Additional Notes: No