(open) i have made the fire up bright

[pipers_son]

Who: Joker and whoever else
What: The best way to recover from trauma is to aggressively ignore it, right? And bake.
When: D13 and onwards, with special shoutout to D19
Where: The Carnival Cookhouse, and about the moon

A - D13 onwards, Cookhouse

[Joker can't exactly say he understands fae holidays, which he supposes is nothing new. Despite the fact that they all live under the Ringmaster's employment and interact with her fairly regularly, very few people probably understand the details that go into the fae life. Still, he understands the concept of giving gifts well enough, especially with the various worlds he's seen which all have their own holidays. He figures he can come up with something well enough.]

[While the marketplace is and well and good, Joker doesn't have nearly enough for the amount of people he wants to give things to- especially some of the new faces around, who he suspect might be feeling a little fish out of water. Well, fortunately, there's always one thing guaranteed to be done.]

[For the rare soul that ventures down into the Carnival for whatever reason... They will find that smoke is wafting up from the cookhouse, and the lights are all on. Opening the doors will find a certain song wafting out from the kitchen. Its singer is wearing some jeans and a simple white sweatshirt. His cooking gear that he won't mind if it gets a little messy.]

Tom, he was a piper's son...

[The small of gingerbread is thick in the air, along with a couple of other things he has in mind, and Joker is casually at work decorating what appear to be, yep, gingerbread men. Feathers the Dartrix is on the counters, casually observing, and looks up when someone appears. Enjoy the cooed greeting.]

B - The Moon, various days

[With how long he was out of commission, just laying around and trying to deal with being poisoned, that really hasn't given his wings much time to get their usual exercise... So Joker is back on the moon with everyone else, flying about.]

[....And other things.]

[As the snowball going for someone's head will attest to.]

Watch out~.

[Look at this smug asshole, in his glittery jacket and his striped scarf. It's made worse by the fact that he's actively juggling snowballs in his one good hand.]

C - Joker's Wild

[This post will also be used for various 1x1 things for Joker to do, but if you have something in particular to approach him about, let me know! I'm flexible for him to do all sorts of things now that he's recovered from poison.]

Comments

D19 - Carnival Cookhouse

[pipers_son]

[The cookhouse still smells heavily of gingerbread, and there's a reason for that.]

[Joker has gathered all of the veterans left in the carnival for one simple purpose: they're going to bake the Ringmaster something. And not just any something, but a big old gingerbread castle. It'd be great if they could make something nice, or praise the lord, really fancy, but Joker has no illusions about the combined effort and talent of the carnival. They'll all be lucky if they get something simple.]

[Still, he's invited detail oriented people like Peridot and designers like Nui, and people who have their shit together like Tanyuu, so, you know. Maybe a miracle will happen. Assuming everyone accepts the invite, at any rate.]

[This is a little get together meant for veterans... but if one of the workers who's been contracted in the last year stumbles in, well, Joker won't turn them away if they want to help. Either way, it's time for a lot of baking and a lot of construction to happen.]

[ooc: approach this like a mingle. there are no rules, besides no attempted murder with the frosting. save that kind of shit for candy canes.]

[shearmadness]

[It's been a while since Nui's seen her fellow veterans. She thought she was only away for two months, which was still far longer than she'd anticipated the retrieval of some special luxury fabric taking. As it turned out, she was actually gone for six months by the carnival's time, and there were many unfamiliar faces who'd shown up in her absence.

It took her special talents to persuade the owners to sell that special fabric at a fair price, and even that took an annoying amount of effort. Still, she'd been determined to not let the Ringmaster down and eventually returned home victorious. Only to discover she'd missed quite the adventure while she was off running that errand.]

Hiiiiii~!

[She greets everyone cheerfully.]

So, what's going on? It smells delicious in here.

[pipers_son]

Cheers, Nui.

[Even if there are a lot of unfamiliar faces, at least there's one that's still around. For the most part, Joker is still very much the same as when Nui left. Yet there are couple of major differences. For starters, one of his wings has changed from magpie black to pure white. On a more subtle note, his wooden antlers and hand have something shifting inbetween the cracks and curves. There's something rock-like in there.... an effect very much reminiscent of opalized wood.]

[That seems to be all for now, however, and he waggles his fingers in greeting.]

We're gonna make a gingerbread castle. At least if we don't all drown in the gingerbread first.

[Around his legs, what appears to be a dog-and-or-deer peers out at her with large orange eyes. On its back is a large owl with seems like leaves growing from it. So, basically, creatures that fit Joker's aesthetic plenty.]

[shearmadness]

I like the new look.

[She can always appreciate a splash of colour, and the people who've been here for a while all have their own distinct aesthetics to show for their time in the Carnival. Hers include splashes of pink and sparkles.]

Cute pets, too.

[She can get on board with this gingerbread plan and nods approvingly. No objections here.]

Is it for the carnival to share? Or for the Ringmaster?

[pipers_son]

Thanks, ya won't believe the stories that came from them.

[Funny how both of the only changes he's gone through have been from major invents that invaded the carnival and kidnapped some (or all) of their number... Either way, that's something she can learn for herself. Enough people are still here who've been through both Celebration and whatever the hell Portland was.]

Anyway, mostly for the Ringmaster. There's plenty of gingerbread around for other folks, don't worry. [Mostly because he made it all, but listen. It's fine. The gingerbread smell will leave the cookhouse eventually.]

[shearmadness]

Oooh? Try me!

[Although she won't push him to tell her if he'd prefer to save those stories for another time.]

Well then, we'll just have to make her something amazing!

[otoko]

HmmmNN!? [That is a voice which Gongenzaka does not entirely recognize, and it honestly takes him a moment to place it. The best he can remember is hearing someone...who sounded like that? When he first arrived in the Carnival and found he would need more than the clothes on his back. They'd been rather....eager. That much he could recall.

....He can't totally remember everything else though, and the large taur-beast turns with confused eyes.] Auh-

Hello? [.........] ...I, the man Gongenzaka...am presently unsure, admittedly. For now it seems....we are to be cooking, perhaps?

[shearmadness]

[That's a very familiar voice, and Nui knows she's heard it here. It takes a few seconds to register who he actually is before she gasps dramatically.]

Oh my gosh! Baby Geezer! Is that you? You look so different!

[It's a nickname she teasingly gave him once because of the old formal way he speaks in contrast with being younger than her.]

[otoko]

KGGh- GOH!!

[HOW COULD HE FORGET] B-BABY GEEZER?! It is Gongenzaka..!! [He protests..very much displaying the 'baby' side of things.] It-

...Hauh! [And now, it all comes back....Like a flood of water, or perhaps more accurately, teasing barbs-] You!

...You are...Nui, are you not!? [He announces, blinking a little owlishly.] ...You have returned, then..? [...Well, obviously, she has...]

[shearmadness]

That's right~ It's me!

[Ah, fond memories of teasing him with that nickname. She doesn't call him by that all the time, but the nickname always gets such a choice reaction out of him that it's worth it now and then.]

My errands took longer than expected, and then time distortion made it even longer for people here. I thought I was gone for two months, but it seems like it's been more like six for everyone else. Weird, huh?

and then this loser

[pipers_son]

[The ringleader (badumtish) of this whole mess is of course around, although he's mostly staying hands off (badumtish) from the construction portion of all of this and is instead sticking to the baking and cutting parts of all of this. Listen, there's a reason he called other people into this whole mess.]

[For once, he's dressed mostly sensibly today... Although that might have something to do with the dark cloak that is held inbetween his two wings so that it's out of the way of the food preparation. Occasionally, he glances up at everything that's going on and makes an idle remark.]

I'll be amazed if we don't burn this whole place down.

[He seems pretty cheerful about this fact, and not distressed at all.]

[So feel free to help him as he bakes or carves out sections of castle, or make a comment on his sweet new cloak, or... Is that a deer? Wait, no, maybe it's a dog... It's sure something, and about as big as either of those creatures. In fact, it probably shouldn't be in the kitchen at all, but it's here regardless as it quietly follows Joker around.]

[There's a bow-tie collar on its neck. It's very cute.]

[dontpokethat]

[A few minutes after Joker's radio call, Ginko steps into the Cookhouse with Miu at his heels. He's dropped his heavier clothing off at his trailer, though he's still wearing his black turtleneck rather than one of his lighter shirts.

He looks around at the proceedings, raising his eyebrows slightly.]

Guess there are worse things you could've been asking for help with... oh. What's that?

[Yep, he's noticed the dog-deer thing. That's certainly new.]

[pipers_son]

Ginko~!

[Whatever awkwardness might have happened... Joker is still more than glad to see the other man, even though he'd known he was going to show up. He finishes pulling out a tray of gingerbread walls, and leaves it to the counter as he goes off to the other man. Sure enough, the dog-deer follows after him. Feathers is perched on its back.]

What do ya think of it?

[dontpokethat]

It's certainly interesting - don't think I've seen anything like it.

[Those words could, of course, be good or bad, but Ginko's genuine delight at the animal shows in his voice. He crouches down to get a better look at it, tilting his head slightly. Miu stays huddled close by his legs, but peeks over at it.]

[pipers_son]

[For a moment, the creature stays right where it is and looks at Ginko with its wide orange eyes. After a couple of seconds of observation, however, it finally takes a few careful steps closer and sniffs the air about Ginko. Joker watches the exchange with a pleased smile on his face.]

It's called a Ruvian, apparently, or at least that's what the folks at the market told me. Can sense auras! Or, y'know- [He shrugs.] The ones outside the norm, anyway, I guess.

[stillwinningthehardway]

[Scout looks disheveled. She's bathed and run a comb through her hair but has a rumpled, disgruntled appearance, and her braid's undone so there's just an extra long lock on one side of her head. For most of this 'stop' she's been working on something, and even now it's very clear that her mind is not on the task at hand.

As evidenced by how right now, when she's lost the plot a bit and is scribbling detailed lightsaber schematics in a notebook, staring at them and scowling and scribbling over them to start again. You might have noticed, her actual lightsaber isn't at her belt.

Someone should probably reel her back in? It's very possible she has a spoon held in a coil of her tail, dripping batter on the floor.]

[otoko]

[Gongenzaka, for his part, is doing his very best-he's still a little surprised to have been called down to help bake gingerbread but...well, it's nothing he could say no to. In fact, he likely agreed to help very loudly.

Gongenzaka uses both his arms, and his vines, to stir and prepare the batter-it is the sound of dripping however, which alerts him to the one beside him. Erm....this one is...

...Who, again? Well.] Auh...Excuse me, miss..! [He awkwardly begins, coughing.] ...Your tail-!

[stillwinningthehardway]

Huh? Oh. Yeah. Thanks.

[Barely reacting, she puts the spoon on the table besides her bowl, the movement a little stiff - her tail is all smooth keratinous segments and suedelike pseudofur, and she's not used to being able to control it this finely - aaaand hunches back over the latest diagram, drawing a fresh line over it and sucking on her bottom lip.]

Maybe if I just give up and solder it... no, there's still a weak point.

[otoko]

[Oiiii oiii.... This is where he's putting his own spoons down. He's not optimistic enough to think that unrelated chatter means there's any focus on the batter. If anything, he half suspects that in a minute or so, he'll catch it dripping again. So instead, he turns.]

....It would appear that you are not truly invested in what we are doing here, miss.

[stillwinningthehardway]

[She only barely looks up.]

I almost have something. I've got to write it down and draw it out, and then I can get back to things.

[Scout's been working on this for ten, fifteen minutes and seems intent and frustrated rather than on the edge of revelation.]

Go on without me. I didn't add baking powder yet so the chemical reaction there won't be exhausted before it's time to put it in the oven.

/comes back to this after december's everything

[pipers_son]

[Joker is pretty good with being sly, and Scout seems pretty distracted. So that means now is the perfect time for him to slip on over and crouch down, trying to exchange the wooden spoon for a gingerbread man still leftover from the mass delivery.]

[Time to see just how absorbed she is in whatever she's doing.]

Re: D19 - Carnival Cookhouse

[dorkypantsuit]

[The Psionic is actually trying his best to help. He's supposed to be decorating the baked walls once they've cooled using frosting and candy. It's hard to wait for the walls to cool though, and it's really hard to resist secretly (or not-so-secretly) munching on the candy he's supposed to be decorating with. Don't call him out on it.]

[pipers_son]

[Oh, definitely not so secretly. Most definitely. Joker lightly and playfully baps him to the side with one of his wings.]

Chew any louder? I think they'll hear ya on the moon.

[That's maybe a slight exaggeration on his end. It's more likely that Joker is just close enough.]

[dorkypantsuit]

Oh, I'm sorry. Is this bothering you?

[He asks very sarcastically.]

[pipers_son]

Yeah, it's botherin' me that I've got a thief in the kitchen.

[And yet he's snickering as he says it. He's done worse when it comes to theft.]