⇨ 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

Rita Mordio | D13 onward | OTA, will match formats

[anti_nonsense]

[a: pretty kitty snow sculpting]

Should one pass by Rita's cabin at the right time, they might catch Rita in the act of putting the finishing touches on a snow sculpture resembling a cat. It's not particularly detailed, as this isn't something she has much experience in, but it's large (taller than her, anyway) and oddly cute-looking.

She doesn't notice when someone approaches, and instead seems focused on shaping a well-defined tuft of fur at the tip of one of the ears.

[b: feast day, all desserts all night]

Rita is present at the feasts, though she's easy to miss, as she focuses on the food and shows little interest in any entertainment or fellow guests. One might notice, however, that she's making her third trip to the dessert table this evening and loading up a plate with little pieces of cake, colorfully decorated cookies, the odd mini-cup of mousse or pudding... to name just a few items. She's getting close to having sampled every sweet the moon has to offer.

Alternatively: she may have just taken the last slice of that pie, or whatever dessert, you were just about to reach for.

[c: doing science, prepping for android repair]

It's quiet back at the carnival, but there are some who still visit the grounds. In Rita's case, she can be found backstage in the Big Top, where she's set up some odd combination of equipment and chemicals borrowed from the engineering department, the medical tent, and the cure-making effort, and using it all to make... something.

There's a thick, cream-colored liquid simmering in a large pot, and several strips of a substance that looks like silicone rubber laid out on a table, with slight variations in thickness and color. One might notice these thin strips are all the color of human skin and have numbered labels next to them. Rita watches over the pot, jotting something down in a notepad as she does. A rubbery smell hangs heavily in the air.

[d: window shopping]

After recovering from the poison, Rita can be seen visiting the caravan's market from time to time. One might find her methodically searching every title of every book they have for sale (an impossible task, but she's certainly making an attempt of it), sometimes spending hours looking through them, trying to find the few nonfiction titles among them, and the even fewer ones that appeal to her interests.

"Don't touch those," she sharply cautions someone who comes too close to a stack of science books she's set aside, not looking up from her rummaging. It doesn't seem to matter if they were actually going to touch them or not.

[e: wildcard!]

Feel free to make your own scenario, or a variation of one of the above! During the vacation, Rita will be dressed like so, but after D21, she may be seen wearing a red gradient scarf instead of the orange one.

C

[dressedtothe]

9S didn't have much interest in visiting the Carnival when there was the moon's everything, but he did just buy some things from the caravan that he needs to put away. It's not hard for him to realise there's others still around with his scanning, though.

Well, he may as well stop off at the Big Top. Maybe he'd be able to catch one of the performers practising? He likes watching.

But instead he finds Rita... cooking? "So that's where you were." He'd been wondering where she'd gone off to.

Curiosity overcomes him though, so 9S immediately approaches the rubbery strips on the table, wrinkling his nose at the smell.

"What's this?" He has his suspicions already, but...

[anti_nonsense]

Rita doesn't respond right away. She continues jotting down notes until she's finished, then she looks up and acknowledges 9S.

"Oh, it's you. I was going to run some samples over to you once I finished a few more, but... this works," she says with a casual shrug. It's convenient, in fact, that she won't have to bother packing them up and taking them to the moon. As she removes a pair of work gloves, she nods at him. "Show me your hands."

None of that was really an answer to his question, but in a roundabout way, it was.

[dressedtothe]

Just as he thought.

9S pulls off his gloves, tucking them in his bag before holding them out, palms up. His synthetic flesh's nanomachines had repaired the burns, but they weren't able to do anything about the places where the flesh had melted off his metal frame entirely. Namely, his palms and the undersides of his fingers.

"How long have you been working on this?"

[anti_nonsense]

Rita takes one of his hands, holding it at the wrist as she examines the damaged area. She answers him while she looks it over.

“I’ve been compiling formulas over the past few days.” With a nod to the substance she’s brewing, she adds, “I began synthesizing samples yesterday. If one of them turns out to be a match, the rest should be easy.”

She wanted to start sooner, but ended up waiting until her poison was cured, and got sidetracked by other nonsense on the moon... plenty of which involved 9S himself. But she's not going to let the vacation end without making sure he's fully repaired and ready for what might come next.

[dressedtothe]

It never ceases to amaze him how quickly and easily Rita grasps the majority of his mechanical nature. The care she shows for him always surprises him, too.

"If my nanomachines accept it, there shouldn't be any problem restoring my skin to normal," he agrees.

His nanomachines can't regenerate so much synthetic skin on their own, but if it's just a case of connecting produced from an external source to his existing skin, the nanomachines should have no problems doing that.

"Let's give it a shot. No harm trying, right?"

[anti_nonsense]

Rita's expression brightens when he agrees, and she nods. Even if 9S claimed he's fine without skin, Rita wants to see him fully healed. Only then can she truly move on after everything that happened at the Hunt.

Plus, from a researcher's perspective, trying to replicate a material that was originally constructed through much more sophisticated means was an interesting challenge, besides.

"Sit up on that table," she instructs him, pointing to a mostly clutter-free worktable. "It'll be easier to test on your legs. I'm going to try attaching some small pieces from these samples. You'll have to give me readings on the nanomachines' response." Rita anticipates a partial success, at least. Even if they may not be perfect, she hopes that most of the samples will receive some response, which would allow them to select the one with the greatest compatibility.

[dressedtothe]

That better a sturdy table!

"Yeah, I can do that." Or Pod 153 could. Either or.

Obliging, 9S sits up on the table, legs idly swinging as he waits for Rita to bring her synthetic creations. He'll hold still once she's closer, though.

"Pod, run system diagnostics."

[anti_nonsense]

Fortunately, the table is plenty sturdy. While 9S sits, Rita brings a few tools and samples over.

"All right... starting with samples 4 and 7." She'll go ahead and skip a few that seem to be poor fits, just from what she observed while examining his hand. Rita takes a moment to clean the surrounding tissue and some of the exposed frame, then snips a small section from the sample strips and applies a piece from each to both legs, lining it up against the edge of his skin.

As she does, she asks, "What brings you here anyway?" Her tone is casual; it's not particularly weird for someone to stop by the carnival. 9S sure seems to like it on the moon, though, so she's curious.

[dressedtothe]

9S watches Rita at work, holding still as she sticks the skin samples to his legs. But her question is easy enough to answer while he and Pod 153 run system diagnostics. He's not really used to doing system diagonistics on himself while not inside his own hacking space, but since it's just diagnostics it isn't hard to pull up a holographic screen and interpret the data readouts from it. Definitely something that would be more difficult without Pod 153's support.

"I wanted to put away some of the things I bought." A small pause, before, "But I was also looking for you." He squirms a little, awkward. "I um. Wanted to thank you."

Another pause while he processes the data. "Sample 4's no good. 7 might work, but I'd try another sample before going with that one."

[anti_nonsense]

While 9S summarizes the compatibility readings, Rita reaches for her notepad and jots some notes down. With all the detail she recorded her recipes in, a viable sample could be reproduced precisely, should the need arise.

"Thank me? For what?" she asks, glancing up from her notes.

[dressedtothe]

9S idly picks at sample 4 from where it's on his leg.

"When I was smoking the plant matter... the first time, I mean." It's best to be specific, in this case. "You said no one could give me purpose. That it was something I had to find for myself, but I didn't have to do it alone."

Sure, he'd been addled by the drugs, but he still heard the words. And so he remembers what she'd said.

"It meant a lot to hear that."

[anti_nonsense]

It's Rita's turn to squirm now. She glances away, awkwardly. "You remember that, huh..." She probably shouldn't be surprised, considering what she knows of how 9S and the pod can store memory data. Things like that probably don't slip by him as easily as it would for a human.

"I, well..." She sets the notebook aside, fumbling a bit as she reaches for her tools. "I meant it, of course. I wouldn't have said it otherwise."

Seeing him picking at the sample, she swats his hand away and then sets to work on removing the piece properly, sterilizing the area as she does. Eyes focused on the leg, she adds, "I don't know how, exactly, but I'll help."

e, post d18

[kingsroads]

Strange got a slightly creepy gift from the Ringmaster (so, of course, he thinks this thing is amazingly awesome). However, one of the problems with a magical quill used to write powerfully binding contracts is just that: it's for contracts. And someone can't make a contract with themselves.

If he asked Lambert to test this with him, Strange knows he's in for a long lecture and a lot of judging and really Strange, why the hell do you think this is a good idea. Asking Childermass to test this with him is right out thanks to lingering problems from Portland. So, there's Rita. He's certain she's going to judge him about this (as Strange has just started assuming everyone's going to judge him about everything he does) but she's one of the few people in the carnival who could realize the importance of the quill's magic in the first place.

Strange walks up to Rita's cabin, after doing a little bit of creepy scrying to make certain she's actually there. He's holding a few sheets of paper as well as the quill, still in the box the Ringmaster gave him. Approaching the door, he knocks a few times, in a slightly impatient manner.

[anti_nonsense]

When Strange used his scrying, he most likely saw Rita sitting in a chair, writing onto a stack of paper with several loose sheets scattered around her.

That's pretty much what she's still doing when he comes to the door, and it takes her a few seconds to set her work neatly aside before she comes to answer the knocking. Opening the door, she greets him with a mildly surprised look. "Oh, good. You actually used the door this time," is all she has to say at first.

[kingsroads]

Strange can't help but look briefly affronted as Rita points out the fact that he actually was a decent human being who knocked instead of barging in like an idiot—really? That's how they're starting off the conversation?! Honestly, he uses doors occasionally! This isn't something for her to chastise him about!

"It's bad form to annoy someone if you're going to ask them a favor," Strange explains, with a little frown. And though he may have knocked, he's certainly inviting himself into Rita's cabin as he tries to barge in like an idiot. "I've something you'll want to see as well."

[anti_nonsense]

A favor...? Rita's eyes narrow in suspicion. "Fine. Come in." It looks like he's coming in anyway, but... whatever. If it's something unreasonable, she can always tell him to buzz off.

Besides, something she'll want to see, coming from Strange, usually means something magical.

Walking along with him to the cabin's main living area where a few comfy-looking chairs face a fireplace and a wooden table stands by a small kitchen, she takes note of the box and the paper he's carrying. "What's in the box?"

[kingsroads]

Once they're at the wooden table, Strange sets his box down on it. Taking the top off to show Rita the quill, he starts to explain. Strange explains it all in a matter of fact manner, as if this is business as usual with them and the carnival.

"It's a gift from the Ringmaster. This quill can be used to write magical contracts. Of course, one needs multiple parties to form a contract. It can be something simple, an arrangement to answer one truthful question or something like that. I simply want to see how it works."

In his explanation, Strange is talking around an important part of his proposal: he wants to see how it works and he wants Rita to be the other person in the contract.

[anti_nonsense]

"Magical contracts...?" Rita looks over the quill, her eyes still narrow with doubt. As she does, one hand grips a circular amulet hanging from her neck -- her own gift from the Ringmaster. "You mean, something like that binding spell the other you used in Portland?" While she can't clearly recall the details of that magic, she distinctly recalls Strange using it to make a binding agreement between the two of them.

[kingsroads]

"I suppose so," he admits. He literally didn't think of that: great, something else to remind people of his Portland self. "However, the binding spell could be performed without one's consent. Since both parties have to sign the document, consent is needed from both." Portland is still a sore spot for Strange and his Portland self even more so. But Rita is right: if this was going to be compared to anything, it would have to be that man.

"I'll let you set the terms of the contract, though I'll write it out myself." As he has a feeling that whole writing with one's own blood thing might weird Rita out.

[anti_nonsense]

"I see," is all the response he gets for that clarification. The requirement of mutual consent certainly makes this better than what was shown to her before, but it's hard to really warm up to the idea of magical contracts in the first place. It's an uncomfortably fae-like concept; the sort of thing they might employ in manipulating people, messing up their lives...

But then again, if humans start using that power, it could put them on a more even playing field...

"You want me to come up with a contract for us?" Rita raises an eyebrow, seemingly surprised at that, then sighs. "Well... I guess it's better than letting you choose something stupid."

[kingsroads]

"I do," Strange seriously responds. After all, he's asking Rita about a binding magical contract, something both of them know as a serious matter. This isn't just 'can I borrow a book,' depending on what Rita chooses, this could end up with all sorts of outcomes.

"You can decide what it is while I write up some bare bones. Our names, places to sign, things like that." Get some of the backbone of the contract written while Rita decides what they're going to do. Then they can start negotiating-though really, Strange has a feeling that whatever Rita suggests won't be too serious.

[anti_nonsense]

"Hmm..." Rita holds a hand over her chin, considering the possibilities. Her first inclination, of course, is to suggest something innocuous and agreeable. But...

"It won't be much of a test if it's something we'd normally agree to anyway," she realizes. That would be no different from an ordinary contract. To truly test the magical properties of this object, they'd need to settle on something they'd normally be reluctant to follow through with. But that has the potential to be unpleasant, even dangerous, so... "To control for any unintended results, we should include a time limit in the contract's terms."

[kingsroads]

Strange sits down at Rita's table, setting out the quill and his paper. He starts to write something: the ink is a dark crimson red and oddly enough, Strange isn't dipping the pen in ink. It's just magically appearing from somewhere (his veins).

At Rita's suggestion, Strange nods. A time limit, yes, that makes sense. "What about I write in something like 'the actions must be completed within forty eight hours of signing the contract'? Would something like that work?"

It's a halfway decent suggestion in Strange's mind and he can't help but shrug, in a sort of 'why not' manner.

[anti_nonsense]

"Forty-eight? That's too long," Rita replies with a shake of her head. "This is just a test, right? So let's make it short and sweet." A magic contract that lasts too long is essentially a curse, after all. Rita doesn't want that hanging over their heads for any longer than necessary.

"How about this: for a period of one hour, any questions I ask you have to be answered truthfully, with no lying or evading. Once an hour's up, the contract is complete." Since he won't know what the questions will be until they're asked, there could be some he'd be reluctant to answer, which would hypothetically allow them to test the magical component of the agreement.

That's only if he agrees to such a one-sided contract, however.