⇨ WISMUTH

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: S2:D6-D11
Where: Wismuth and the Carnival Grounds
What: The carnival enjoys a few days in Wismuth, a coastal city on this planet's version of the American east. However, there are a few things very unique about this version of the planet...
Warnings: The usual, wholesome fun.

PILLAR OF CREATION↴ Upon arriving, things in Wismuth will seem pretty peaceful. It's a massive city, with no shortage of things going on, but things like violent crime and homelessness are at an all time low. You can wander the streets without much scrutiny, presumed to just be tourists, and most people here come across as helpful and friendly. ► VIBRANCY: The main thing that sets this planet apart is its vibrancy - AKA, the raw creative energy its filled with, flowing from its status as a Pillar of Creation. There is no literal pillar, but Wismuth and its planet is a place where Creation's energy comes through strongest. As a result, everything here feels somehow more real, more intense in a way that's hard to put a finger on. Life is abundant, and its bleeds through in every sensation. ► ATTRACTIONS: There are plenty of things to see while going around the city. First and foremost, there is a lovely beach area bordering the ocean, and a number of tourist aimed attractions built around it. There are giant malls, movie theaters, live stage performances, museums and all kinds of other points of cultural interest. Anything you can do in a big city you can do here, but better. ► ALLOWANCES: The Ringmaster will be giving everyone a reasonable amount of local currency for a few days on the town. You can't make any massive acquisitions with it, but it's more than enough to eat out, see some shows, go to the beach, and whatever you like. You can feel free to pick up some casual supplies, like mundane clothing and souvenirs. There will be more given out later, after the performance week. ► PERFORMANCE: Performance week is starting early this time, after only a couple days of exploration. When the carnival has already been on vacation for a month, the Ringmaster figures they may as well get right to it, and then do more touring afterwards. Members of the local populace will find themselves in the carnival once performances begin, dazzled by the other worldly sights. Magic doesn't seem to exist here, despite the fact that it will flow easier for people bringing it from other worlds.

Comments

[dontpokethat]

This is... probably progress. If they can get the crowd to the menagerie itself, maybe they'll be distracted and stop clinging to poor Julien.

He gives as enthusiastic a nod as he can muster and takes another step toward the menagerie, trying his best to hide his strain as he meets Julien's glance. "We're heading to the m-- the zoo, now-- uh, if you want to come along, there's a ticket booth for the tours outside the entrance, just make sure you're ready to pay when we get there."

He does not want to accidentally end up with any of these people as coworkers, okay.

[espigeon]

Helpfully Julien says, "We take all forms of currency and random trinkets!"

"Ooooh, your voice is like thunder. I feel it in my body," says someone plastered to his chest, shuffling backwards every time he takes a short, hobbled step.

Julien's bird eyes don't have the range of motion needed to roll. He gets around that and tries to convey the same thing by lolling his head back a bit and inscribing an invisible circle in the air with his beak. None of his more dedicated fans are up to interpreting that. Maybe the less obnoxious ones tagging along could, who knows.

He'll try and stealthily slip a token in if anyone can't pay, themselves. Julien's more charitable about people than Ginko is and is willing to believe they're less amazingly terrible when sober. Still.

The walk to the menagerie entrance is going to take at least twice as long as a guest going at a normal amble.

[dontpokethat]

When they finally do get to the menagerie and everyone has been led inside, Ginko lets out a relieved breath. Maybe now, little by little, they can be distracted.

"Now, while we're in here, I'm going to need everyone to stay on the path for their own safety, got it? Most of the animals will come to us on their own." He nods toward the first enclosure, lush and thickly wooded even compared to the surrounding areas - which Julien might recognize as the dwarf wyrm habitat. "These guys, for example, are actually pretty friendly. They're not very fast, so it might take them a bit to make their way over. Just watch closely and you'll see them as they come up."

As he speaks, something iridescent, scaly, and kind of chubby-looking shifts among the branches.

[espigeon]

Julien tows his fans to the edge of the path, accompanied by a retinue of less attached folk.

"Aww, look! What a cutie!" He's exaggerating a little, but only so much. Julien does like a lot of the menagerie and enjoys visiting some of the animals. Not enough to go and switch jobs or even get assigned part time work, admittedly. He's content to sometimes come by and, if there's enrichment present, to help with it now and then.

The dwarf wyrms like him. He's very easy to pick out from a distance, and up close, he's very warm and is usually willing to share that warmth, even if he extricates himself in a hurry if he's defecated on.

There's some gasping and murmuring from the guests, who have the common mixed response to something reptilian. Interest, fear, disgust, appeal, Ginko's probably seen it all.

[dontpokethat]

He sure has, and honestly, it doesn't stop being kind of fun to listen to. He doesn't bother to hide a slight, growing smile as he steps toward the wooden gate marked 'employees only', leading into the magically-sustained enclosure. He keeps talking as he steps in and lifts an arm, inviting the dwarf wyrm down from its perch.

"I'm taking this guy out there in a moment, so if you're scared of snakes, go ahead and step back. Otherwise, come forward - but, again, stay on the path." It's just standard safety procedure to remind guests, but... let's face it, nearly everyone here is either a child or drunk, he wants to be sure they don't wander somewhere they shouldn't be.

The little reptile takes hold of his arm with short, blunted claws, then plops onto his shoulders. Ginko steps back through the gate and onto the path, holding up the wyrm. "So, these guys typically live in trees, where they eat small animals. They're entirely harmless to humans, and actually pretty friendly, we've found."

Which is, of course, why they're the first stop on menagerie tours.

[espigeon]

The guests respond with a varied chorus of coos and muffled shrieks and giggles, especially as the wyrm drops out of the tree and onto its keeper. Immediately and obviously some children and intoxicated adults alike start daring each other to touch it, nudging each other.

"Look at those little widgy feet," Julien exclaims, shuffling closer and leaning in, moving slowly so the animal doesn't think he's trying to go for a bite. Someone is hiding from the snake behind him, among his tailfeathers, and it takes an effort of will to keep from flicking them, which wouldn't hurt anyone but would probably get them annoyed. There are okay ways to touch his tail and there's that way, which just feels weird.

"Is he okay to touch?" As if he doesn't already know. But he has the sense that the people with him are largely following his lead, and they ought to take an interest in the non-talking weird animals, so.

[dontpokethat]

"Absolutely." Ginko slides his hands under the dwarf wyrm, which has currently situated itself over his shoulders and behind his neck, and lifts it over his head to hold forward.

"If any of you have pet a snake before, it's pretty much the same as that; if you haven't, just use two fingers and pet toward the tail. I promise you, he's not slimy or anything, and he won't bite."

[espigeon]

Julien would like to touch it but his only plausible option there is with his face. The wyrms are marvelously chill - even so, lots of animals don't like big mouths near them, and with this batch of guests it's better to err on the side of caution.

Speaking of that, some of the people around him are maybe a little slower to touch the wyrm than if he'd shown them first, but they're not unwilling. One reaches out quickly and leaps back with a squeal, startling several of the others. Others of the guests are much less alarmed and even marvel about the snakelike animal's softness and smoothness, or compare him to the Burmese pythons they've touched. Ginko's probably seen each of these reactions before, too, and the I want ones.

"So how often do you feed him?" Julien says, prompting a variety of standard questions like the wyrm's sex and name and age and origins and care. It's pretty standard, and even though there are still people hiding or hanging on to him, Julien himself feels like he's less the focus of attention.

[dontpokethat]

As always, the wyrm is happy to stay flopped over Ginko's hands, holding on with its feet as people pet it. Ginko, meanwhile, finds himself oddly proud at each positive response to the little animal, even if it doesn't have much to do with his own effort so much as just the animal being cute.

"Just every couple of weeks. Like snakes, they have very slow metabolisms, so they don't need to eat very often." He moves on through the standard answers pretty easily, each of them having been answered time and time again - this one is (after checking a little mark on the back of its head) male, he's four years old, they're a rare species from a world covered in rainforests, so they need heat and humidity and eat bugs and fish.

"They're very social, so we have about four living in the enclosure, but they bond easily with other species anyway." ...And, as he says that, the wyrm has apparently decided it's time to demonstrate by twisting around to climb up Ginko's face, nearly sticking a tiny nub-foot into his mouth.

[espigeon]

The guests definitely laugh at that, though there's a couple gasps and murmurs as well. The more snake-phobic among the guests don't like this, of course, it's more movement than the creature has shown so far since flopping down out of a tree. Fortunately they're the avoid type of disliking reptiles, not the 'attempt to hurt' kind.

There are several people who'd probably be content to hang out with the dwarf wyrm all day, or at least for a good couple hours, but there's also some shuffling and meandering, especially by people who haven't approached the animal, and Julien sees a couple flasks handed around by some of the impaired adults and winces internally. This may be a good time to move on.

Ginko's probably picking up on that himself, but just in case, Julien shifts a little bit and says "Is he thinking about going back?"

[dontpokethat]

Oof, yeah, looking like it's about time to go. Try and keep these people focused on... anything other than Julien and alcohol. Besides which, the wyrm really is getting antsy. "Seems like it. I'll drop this guy off, and we can move on in a moment."

He steps back into the enclosure to lift the dwarf wyrm back onto a branch, after gently unwinding him from around his face. He's in and out in a few seconds, and beckons the group onward. "Now, the next ones won't be coming out of their enclosure for safety reasons - but you won't have to worry about seeing them, believe me."

The demonic wheels' segment of the forested menagerie isn't quite as lush as the dwarf wyrms' - some green remains, mostly from fast-growing, hardy plants placed specifically to withstand these creatures. But much of the enclosure is strangely frost-bitten, or scorched down to dust and stone... the latter probably thanks to the massive, eye-covered, flaming wheel that, as soon as the group comes close, charges for the path.

The fire eye stops short of actually crashing into the magic barrier, instead skidding into a sharp turn and slowing down as it rolls away again. Ginko snorts and watches it go before turning to the group. "I'll... take this moment to remind everyone again that we are completely safe; the fire eye is pretty aggressive, but it can't get to us and knows it."

[espigeon]

Somehow, magically, the smell of burning doesn't really seep past the wheel-viewing region. Probably just as well really, or this whole half of the carnival would smell like an unholy combination of fire, Barfy, the tyrannosaurus, and that creepy owl. Maybe that's Julien's surprisingly keen pigeon nose talking. Being able to smell and hear all the other animals would probably stress out a lot of these creatures anyway, he supposes.

The wheel charges at the guests, who react in a variety of ways. There's a lot of screaming, freezing up, a couple try to bolt back into the previous section but more likely than not are too inebriated to manage and hit the ground, people hide behind or under Julien, who tenses visibly at the wheel's rush in spite of himself. A few guests in the back don't even see it and are confused.

"It's all right," he says for their collective benefit, as excited fearful babble rises up, too much and too indistinct to answer specific people. "He works here and he's not fireproof." Julien thinks. "I've been here before and I'm definitely not fireproof. Looks weird, huh? This is the only animal like this that I've ever seen."

Julien's been in the menagerie a lot, for someone who doesn't work there, but he hasn't had much to do with these. Now, closer up than usual, he says, "It kinda makes me think of Portland. Well, this looks a lot harder to take care of. Do you have to rake out the ashes?"

[dontpokethat]

"Exactly. It's totally safe, just stay on the path." Very reassuring, Ginko - but he doesn't want them to get the idea that they'd still be safe if they passed through the magic barrier.

"Like a lot of the creatures here, these things are unique to their world of origin. They're actually a type of demon, which travel in pairs. The other half of this one should be coming by soon." Then he snorts softly, and nods to confirm that. "We have to move them to a secondary enclosure to clean this one, but it tends to go smoothly enough once that's done."

[espigeon]

Hmm. The coordination issues, with children and drunk people... Julien would feel better if he knew there was also a magic thing that keeps people from straying or falling into the animals' area, but he doesn't. All right, peace of mind is worth it.

"You can hang on to me," he tells the guests, turning his head almost owl-style so he can take in each one. "You'll be safe there. I'm not going to stray anywhere near the edge of the path." He is of course immediately surrounded and feels many of his feathers clasped and pulled kind of uncomfortably in anxious hands, and he suppresses a sigh.

Not everyone is simply afraid. The demonic wheel is awe-inspiring to several people, who watch with wide eyes and open mouths. But between the strangeness and hostility of the wheels, the sense of heat from one and cold from the other should it show, and the fact that there's no physical barrier between them and the viewing area, the guests are more reticent here, not as inclined to speak up. Julien gives it a go anyway.

"What do they eat? ...How? The other one's got mouths, does the fire one just burn things?"

Hesitantly, the less concerned guests make some pretty obvious observations about the creature or creatures and asks a few questions, like what happens when it rains if they migrate and 'when you say demon...'

[dontpokethat]

Well, Ginko could assure him that won't happen if he asked - more than anything, he's concerned about the risk of impaired judgment leading people to leave the path intentionally. But it doesn't occur to him to mention that part, and he figures Julien is just concerned about the guests' comfort - which is certainly nice of him.

Sure enough, it's not long before both wheels are rolling idly around the enclosure, apparently having lost interest in the guests beyond the occasional tilt and roll toward the path. Ginko looks away from them to answer the next set of questions.

"Both of them seem to take in energy through their effect on their surroundings; so the Ice Mouth doesn't actually use its mouth to eat, it just sucks the heat out of organic matter. Similarly, the Fire Eye burns up flammable materials as fuel." Hearing the guests' questions, he adds, "They really don't like rain, especially the Fire Eye - which is why there's a stone cave built into their enclosure. They usually stick to one pretty small territory, so migration isn't an issue."

And then there's the matter of what they are. Ginko gives a small nod, his expression more serious for a moment. "When we call these demons, we mean they'e a kind of malevolent spirit; there are all sorts of legends about how these came to be, whether they'e truly the spirits of evil people or simply something else entirely. But, since we can't know the truth for sure, we'll settle for what we have - that they're certainly supernatural in nature, and have the potential to be incredibly dangerous."

[espigeon]

The wheels trundling about at less urgent paces are weirder than when they're racing, maybe because their details are much more distinct, and because debris doesn't seem to stick to them and how they propel themselves and remain stable isn't immediately obvious. They are very clearly not of this world, while the dwarf wyrms are so much like familiar animals.

That the wheels don't like rain draws some smiles; it's a very normal, humanizing(?) touch for such strange creatures. Julien muses that Ginko seems very at home discussing these weirder aspects like energy consumption. "Is it a symbiotic relationship, maybe? Or uh, commensalist? If the fire wheel heats things up and the ice one eats heat."

There's a lot more murmuring with the next explanation. Julien flinches, a flicker of the inner eyelid and a motion of his head, as someone overbalances and pulls hard at the feathers they're clasping. He's a pigeon, those are loosely rooted. "Hey, careful, I need those."