lostcarnival | ⇨ THE LUNAR SOLSTICE

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⇨ THE LUNAR SOLSTICE

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The drugs were given to him. He had no other choice but to try them!!

9S flaps his free hand at Rita dismissively, turning the joint so the flame can burn the end more evenly before he blows out the flame so the joint is lit. "It'll be fine."

And with that, 9S brings the joint to his lips and takes a drag, letting the smoke flow into him, before exhaling a long, steady stream of smoke. After a pause, 9S frowns. Hm. He's not feeling anything? Is he doing it wrong? Or is it just not a drug that works on androids?

He tries not to let his disappointment show on his face as he holds out the joint to Cole. "Okay, you try now. Inhale slowly and not too much at a time."

These are very clear instructions.

Cole's watching 9S very carefully. Alright, he can do this, he thinks he's got this. Taking the joint, Cole takes a drag, inhales some smoke...and then just kind of chokes on it, breaking into a little coughing fit.

To nobody's surprise, the first time smoker is having issues. Still, that's not stopping him, as Cole puts the joint to his lips again, takes another drag, and inhales slowly. Bringing the joint to his side, he looks over at Rita and 9S, giving them both a small smile.

"I did it!"

Now what?

Rita turns the video camera over in her hands, examining the various buttons and switches on it, experimentally toggling them one after another... though she looks up briefly when Cole starts coughing.

She still can't believe this is happening.

"You probably won't notice a difference right away," Rita offers for Cole's benefit, her eyes back on the camera.

Hooray!

Except... Cole isn't feeling it either? Hm. Rita says that they're not going to notice it right away, but all the drugs 9S has taken hit him almost immediately. It was really obvious, too. Like, colours turned weird and stuff. Hard not to notice the drug working its way through his system.

"Do you feel anything?" 9S rubs his chin thoughtfully. "I'm not feeling any different yet. Maybe we haven't taken enough."

"I don't know what I'm supposed to feel," Cole admits, with a little frown. "But I don't feel different."

But if 9S thinks that they haven't taken enough, then they might not have taken enough. After all, 9S has done this before. He knows what to do. But Rita says they might not notice it right away and Rita also knows what to do. There's an awkward pause, while Cole mulls over what to do next. The dilemma is solved as Cole takes another small little hit from the joint before he offers it back to 9S. There we go! A teeny bit more.

"Don't be stupid and overdo it," Rita casually warns them, her gaze still on her new gadget. In truth, she doesn't know how much is too much, and they're free to make their own stupid choices either way...

"It stinks," she adds after a moment.

9S takes the joint from Cole and takes another drag from it, longer this time, exhaling the smoke in a single long breath.

He still doesn't feel much different. At least, until it takes a few seconds for him to realise Rita's saying something to him.

"What stinks?" he asks, after an overly long pause before he turns to look at her. Strange. Her hands as she works with the camera seem to be remarkably still. He would've expected her to be fiddling with it with more gusto than she appears to be.

"I don't smell anything," Cole helpfully pipes up. But he's starting to feel something. His mind feels a bit...sluggish? Which is odd. Perhaps it's the cold, Cole's only been to places this cold a few times in his life.

Having no idea what the effects of weed feel like in the first place, Cole doesn't think to mention to Rita or 9S that his high's slowly starting to creep up on him.

"I'm talking about the smoke, you dolts," Rita retorts, looking mildly unimpressed at the two of them. Are they less sensitive due to being nonhumans...? Or is it because they've been inhaling the stuff?

The smoke doesn't just smell weird, either. It looks weird, too, with its thin wisps twisting into strange shapes, and hints of pale colors that seem to become more vivid as the smoke grows gradually more dense.

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!"

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."

Ah. It's definitely working.

Rita watches 9S go down with her eyes narrowed, and sighs. "I'm not upset. I'm happy to miss out on making an idiot of myself." Like 9S is doing right now, and Cole... well, maybe not so much, but he does seem kind of off right now. Rita glances over to where he's pacing, curious.

9S waves the joint in Cole's direction, offering it back to the spirit. Wow his hand's moving so slowly... 9S blinks, green leeching from his visual systems, turning his vision into hues of red and blue. Oh, yeah, definitely working.

He tries to watch Cole, but he finds his attention slipping as he laughs again, wheezing out the words, "Like you did when you cured yourself?" to Rita before he can stop them.

Not that he's even in the right frame of mind to, anyway.

Cole's hands just shoot to his side as 9S offers him the joint. Nuh-uh, no way, he feels weird enough as is, he's not going to smoke it again. Did smoking always make things feel slow, make your heart pound and pulse and push? Why did people do this! This was horrible!

"Beating to break," he mutters under his breath. "Emotions, memories, humanity, scattered to the storm as they learn to adapt. I feel all."

The weed causes magical abilities to misfire in exciting ways. At least for Cole, this means his normal spirit empathy is just turned up to eleven. Add that in with his confusion at the weed's normal side effects and he is just not having a good time in the slightest.

Oh, he did not just say that!

"Hey!" Setting the camera down, Rita jumps to her feet and takes a few stomps toward 9S. She knows she made a fool of herself back there. She knows it and she hates it. "You've got some nerve, bringing that up...!" She clenches a fist and for a moment, it looks like she's about to start a fight with him, but Cole's mumbling makes her pause and, tension fading, she turns to look at the spirit.

"Uh... Cole? You okay there?"

9S just laughs at Rita's irritation. "You thought... you thought...!" He hangs onto the joint with a deathgrip in one hand, while leaning back with the other, wheezing with laughter.

Laughter that buries all his despair, pushing down that deep sense of loneliness.

But there are spots of connection, from people like Cole -- he's a spirit but to 9S he's still a person -- who understand, to the Carnival humans who treat him as if his life means something...

Even though the humans who created him apparently didn't even trust their own creations to not turn on them. Maybe they had a point; the machines killed their creators. But androids are nothing like the machines! But yet, Rita trusts him more than his very own creators.

As 9S gets a case of the giggles, Cole gets a case of the shakes, trembling slightly, ears twitching up a storm as he rapidly looks from Rita to 9S back to Rita again. She's trying, she wants to help, but none of them knew this would happen so it wasn't anybody's fault but Cole just wants it to stop.

The stream of consciousness rambles start up again as, desperate to feel like himself again, Cole pinpoints on the person in the room with the most hurt: 9S. He can help. Right?

"Still the same but definitely different. Of course people trust you. There's reasons for trust. You work and help and try but everything now is so slow, so scary, blood boils and feelings fade. You shouldn't have tried with this one, I don't like it."

This trip sucks.

"It's not funny!" Rita hollers over her shoulder at 9S, a tinge of red in her face. So what if she thought he liked her? Anyone would make that mistake in that situation! It's his fault, anyway!

...And anyway, she should focus on Cole, who... seems to be doing his Cole thing, but in a more erratic way than usual. Who is he talking to...? It doesn't seem like he's hitting on anything Rita's feeling, so... that leaves 9S, doesn't it? Something about being trusted...

Cole's not looking good, and it seems like Rita's the only one in the room with her head on straight, so she takes a few cautious steps closer to him. "Hey, uh... maybe you should try sitting down," she suggests. It looks like their little experiment yielded some clear results... but, yeah, she really doesn't know what to do with this.

There's a solid thunk as 9S ends up falling down flat on his back. For some reason, he finds that funny. Just as funny as the smoke rising from the still lit joint, painting the ceiling in psychedelic colours.

He wants to help. He wants to know what he's doing isn't meaningless.

He thinks about the machines. There's no meaning in what they do. There's no meaning in what he's doing.

His contract is worthless.

So many worlds don't have androids, but there are so many humans. Maybe when there are lots of humans, there's no need for androids to exist.

< Report: Unit 9S' motor functions and behavioural systems are impaired. Synaptic transmissions are erratic. Proposal: Cease smoking and dispose of the plant material immediately >

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" 9S calls from the floor. For some reason, raising the arm with the smoking joint seems like a good idea.

Cole continues muttering, an almost constant stream of consciousness detail of 9S's hurts and fears, as he twitches up a storm.

"There's no point, they're all gone, how can I help if I have no one to help. Worthless, worthless, w—"

And then there's Rita. Her words cut through his drugged out nervous haze like a hot knife through butter. Cole looks over at her with eyes as wide as dinner plates before he tentatively nods. She thinks it would be a good idea to sit down. She's probably right. Awkwardly, Cole looks around before sitting on a chair.

"He wants meaning," he murmurs to Rita. "He doesn't realize that everyone wants that at one point or another. Everyone wants to know their purpose."

What a disaster.

Rita thought this would end in idiocy, and she wasn't exactly wrong... but she didn't expect Cole to react so badly. She follows him to the chair, making sure he actually seats himself and doesn't fall on his ass like 9S. She meets his eyes when he starts making sense again, and nods after a pause.

He's focusing on 9S's pain... He probably can't help it.

The loss of the Bunker, the other androids, and the uncertain fate of 2B... of course he's taking it hard. Rita wants to help too, but she's never really been the nurturing, supportive type. She doesn't know how to help. For now, though...

"Pod's got a point. I think you've had enough," she says in a cool tone, walking over to 9S and plucking the joint from his hand.

"I'm right here you know," 9S grumbles in a mumble. Don't talk about him as if he isn't right here, Cole! But there's a good few seconds before 9S reacts to Rita taking away the joint. "Hey!"

Aw man... he wanted more...

He can't quite muster the care to actually get up and take the joint back though, so he stays lying flat on his back, quiet.

He was created to serve humans, but his life has so little worth that he was disposed of over and over again. He believed (believes) in their mission, but all he'll get is a sword in his back if he returns.

(He wonders, then, how exactly did 2B choose to kill him, all those times.)

9S lets out a laugh. It might be from the drugs. It might be because the other option is to cry. "I'm not like you." General you. "It's not a want. It's a need."

Cole's sitting in the chair, still a nervous wreck but trying to calm down. It's not helpful if he's jumpy or frantic, he needs to be calm, he needs to be steady, he can do this.

He doesn't realize that he's gripping the edge of the chair so hard that his knuckles are turning more pale than they normally are. But at 9S's question, Cole tilts his head in confusion.

"Can't it be both?" 9S wants a purpose. But 9S also needs a purpose. The two aren't mutually exclusive, not in Cole's mind.

With a flick of Rita's wrist, the joint is extinguished, and she sets it aside on a counter.

9S 'needs' a purpose... That's not entirely different from how humans are, though it's likely that he may not view the concept in the same way Rita would.

"Nobody can give you purpose. It's something you have to find for yourself," she says, leaning against the counter and looking down at 9S. Her gaze drifts to an empty part of the room, however, as she adds, "But you don't have to do it alone."

She's trying to say that she wants to help... but is it really a good time to talk about this, when he's... like that?

The conversation -- 'conversation' -- they're having is quite serious, but 9S' attention is wandering. "Hey..." he begins solemnly. "...I think a snake got into the cabin."

He points up at the ceiling, where a pink curl of smoke undulates in the air.

The hurts are still there, curled beneath the thick haze of the drugs, but for now, he's not thinking of them. Still, the fact is, he's not alone; Rita and Cole are here -- even though 2B isn't -- and that makes things bearable. Even though he doesn't say it, he appreciates it. What would be crushing pain otherwise, lessens in company.

⇨ THE LUNAR SOLSTICE

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and thus this group of idiots discovers that huh, weed takes a while for it to hit

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