⇨ INTERLUDE: BACK TO THE MOON

[ringleaders]

Who: Steven, the Ringmaster, Lambert, and everyone he invited to the party.
When: Day 8?
Where: THE CENTER OF THE MOON.
What: In an effort to determine the meaning of The Starlight's prophecy, Steven is going to try talking to the Blue Rose. Also, a bunch of other guys are here to watch.
Warnings: Some possibly dangerous weirdness.

THE BLUE ROSE↴ Once Lambert has assembled the group, it's just a matter of picking a time and date. When the time arrives, the Ringmaster will meet them in a clearing similar to the portal that lead them to the moon's surface, only a bit different in execution and tone: this one is more secretive and intricate by far. She'll gather everyone around, telling them she is going to take them to the Rose. And then she does. One instant, the group is in the forest - the next, they have appeared within a large, orb-shaped room carved from stone. There are no entrances and no exist, there is only the smooth rocky exterior with empty air inside of it. The gravity pulls outward, meaning that you can walk the stone 'floor' in circles, gazing towards the center of the empty space from all angles. Any further away from the floor, and gravity will lose its grip entirely, like a space of zero gravity in the center of a cavern-sized globe. Which makes sense, because this is the carved out center of the moon. In the center of the orb, there is only one thing: the Blue Rose, floating in place, with a tangle of glass-like thorns surrounding it. The air is thick with a feeling of simultaneously hot and cold, like a flame on a cold night, or a winter's breeze on an overheated body. The Rose casts an eerie blue light over it all, the only light to be found. "This is it!" the Ringmaster declares once she's verified that everyone has teleported in safely. "If you jump high enough, you'll end up in the float zone... though, if you aren't participating in the actual discussion with the Rose, I'd recommend you stay grounded for now."

Comments

[starseedling]

Upon Rita's investigation, it seems pretty clear that the magic of the Blue Rose is completely overwhelming anything that Steven could have brought to the table. She can see the magic of the vines' roots branching throughout his entire body, now, and something about the energy of his physical makeup has been changing to match. It's like his circulatory system is entirely alight right magic.

Gem bodies are made of energy, and as a half gem, Steven is half-formed from that power, too. That pure magical energy seems more malleable than regular flesh would be.

Peridot's fire blast crushes the outer layers of the thorny maze, putting a pause on its increasingly out of control growth. Unfortunately, in Syrlya's current place, the thorns are pushing too far out for him to reach the Rose, though his fingers extend frustratingly close. Of course, Peridot has just freed up another way in.

The fire sends enough of a shock through the Rose's system that it causes Steven to stir again, though he's so dazed and overwhelmed, there isn't much he can do with these scattered moments of clarity. He squirms, trying to pull his hands away from the Rose again, his breath growing heavy and rapid as if a creeping discomfort is rising to a climax.

A feeling of overwhelming helplessness sweeps through the room - but the sensation comes from an outside source. It's an empathic projection, coming from Steven.

[periphrasing]

It's severe emotional whiplash for Peridot, tasting success for that brief moment and then promptly getting slammed by a wave of hopelessness. It actually makes her physically recoil, jerking away from the epicenter of the action with a squeak and pained shake of her head.

[atouts]

And this is enough. Childermass hadn't been terribly on board with this place to begin with but he was at least willing to — not unlike the Ringmaster — humor Steven and Lambert in this. Overwhelming helplessness seems to have the opposite effect on him, a man who despises such an emotion. It washes over him and he does suffer through the wave of sudden doubt and fear, for all of three or four seconds, then he's just angry. A cold anger, not even related to his status as a Winter Court changeling. There's no yelling, no swearing, not even a sound.

One second there's a tall, lanky magician lurking in the background near Strange, the next there's a crow hurling itself up through the air and into the field around the Blue Rose.

He aims for Peridot as she begins drifting away from the struggle, landing on her first and using her to propel himself further through the field, landing on her further along, and then shoving off one more time as he changes shape once again. Back to a human, aiming to crash into the thorny cage still wrapping around Steven and pulling what looks suspiciously like a rather small knife from the buckle of his belt as he goes.

Let's see how those thorns feel about a little iron.

[lordofthering]

Being a High Fae herself, the Ringmaster notices the iron blade as soon as its unsheathed. Ah yes. The iron blade she gave to Childermass herself. Hmm.

"Aww - You better not destroy that thing, Childermass!" she shouts after him, while channeling the air magic she's been using to help guide him in the same breath. Not that he really seems to need the help.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya feels Steven's emotions, poignantly. It's been months since he felt that familiar thrum of someone else's feelings in the back of his heart, and it's sharp, but he's just as used to pressing it down, all too aware of what is and isn't his.

His gaze snaps to the opening that Peridot makes. He doesn't know what keeps the Rose so docile in the face of its vines getting blasted, but he'll take it. He pulls his arm free and uses the vines as grapples to pull himself around to the larger opening, am outstretched.

Probably at around the same time Childermass arriving. He's aware someone else is there, but his first concern is snapping the Rose's stem and separating Steven.

So he makes one more lunge for it though the vines, housing between his teeth as some of the thorns scratch his face.

[whattaprick]

The feeling that fills the room is -- odd -- but it slides around Lambert's mind rather than wrapping him up in it. Seeing Peridot flinch back, his ears prick forward, about to call out.

Then Childermass flings himself forward, and that seems to be enough bodies up there for the time being. He doesn't make good on his threat to change yet, but he's shedding his bracers, speaking to Rita again as they hit the ground.

"Is the Rose going for Childermass too?"

[starseedling]

As Childermass drags his blade through the first of the vines blocking the way, the entire mass of vines seems to pull away reflexively, retreating from a blow that hits harder than it has any sensible right to. The iron's burn is immediate, reducing the vine it touches to steam and moisture in a wide area around the actual cut.

It's a convenient hesitation in its movement, and a pause in its growth, that allows Syrlya to get in close before any more thorns can get in his way. Once next to Steven, it seems bizarrely trivial to reach out and break the blossom of the Blue Rose free from Steven's hands and the rest of its vines.

The effect is immediate. The blue glow starting to overtake Steven's body behinds to fade, and the intensity of the Rose's bitter cold-heat falls along with it. The splintered end of the Rose's stem will begin trying to regrow in Syrlya's palm, but at a much slower and more hesitant rate, as if it isn't sure what has just happened and it's simply trying to get rooted again.

The thorns stay tangled around Steven like long ropes of glass, but they fall slack, which allows the boy to follow suit. The ends of the vines are left, still seemlessly entering through his skin in places along his arms, back, and belly - somehow without any visible disruption to his skin.

[kingsroads]

It's a big mass of chaos as Peridot and Syrlya and Childermass(???) all jump in and do things, with the vines pulling away for reasons Strange isn't entirely sure why. As the intensity fades, Strange looks up at Steven and notices, right off the bat, that those vines are literally entering his skin.

This is fae magic. Who knows if Strange could stop it to begin with. But hell, if he could help break the magic on the bicorn then who knows, he could help break the magic on Steven. He's confident he can at least do something.

"Get him down to me!" he yells before he starts the preparation, murmuring the start of the disenchantment spell under his breath.

[anti_nonsense]

The wave of emotion hits Rita hard, leaving her temporarily stunned. It's almost like an immense weight just latched on to her...

But before long, she shakes her head as if physically shaking off the sensation, and tries to regain her focus. At Lambert's question, she begins to answer, "No, it's--" but before she can say much more, it's already over. Which is good, because things were starting to look pretty bad from her perspective.

"We have to get him out of here," she says instead of finishing her answer.

[periphrasing]

Peridot's ears flick at the sound of Strange's voice, and she opens her eyes to see that, thank the stars, the vines are retreating. She doesn't think twice. Just beats her wings in a frenzy and crosses the distance to where Steven is, scooping him close to her chest with one arm.

Going back to the platform is the next obvious step, which, she does, promptly. But in her haste, the shift between exiting the Float Zone and entering a space where gravity actually applies makes her sort of stumble in mid-air. She was intending to just do a pass and hand Steven over to Lambert who could then hand him off to Strange, but now she's just kind of. Crashing.

At least she has the good grace to change back into her regular shape, so as not to go careening into the platform dwellers below in the form of a reptile the size of a small car.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya's eyes roll up the vines as they retreat rapidly from Childermass's blade, recoiling more strongly than he's ever seen it react to. It's completely subconscious when he grabs the stem and cracks it, just as easy as the first time, because he's staring mutely at the vines, and then Childermass.

He floats back a little once he has the close, drawing his arm away to put distance between the flower and Steven. He's struck for a moment, before the calls below snap him back to awareness and he looks to see how Steven's faring instead.

Absently, he tries to press his will onto the Rose to slow its growth further, to stop.

[atouts]

Meanwhile, Childermass, on seeing the vines retreat and Peridot retrieves Steven, well, all that's left for him to do is put the damn knife away, cross his arms, and float disapprovingly in the float zone.

Like, he already knew this was probably a bad idea, though he at least won't say it out loud.

Yet, anyway.

[whattaprick]

Rita's statement isn't something Lambert is going to argue with, and he's not going to contest Strange's words, even if he has no idea how the magician thinks a disenchantment spell might help with this.

As Peridot brings Steven back down, his gaze snaps up to track her ... meaning he's right there to notice as she promptly drops like a rock when she forgets about the shift in gravity. Witcher reflexes kick in and he's already moving, lunging forward to catch them before they can hit the platform. With his wings and his general rotundness, Steven is the far harder body to get ahold of, so he ends up having to cradle him with both arms while his tail whips out to grab Peridot, wrapping around her middle to arrest her fall.

The force of impact has Lambert landing on his knees, painfully, but he doesn't cry out. Instead, he lowers Steven to the ground as gently he can, then rapidly begins checking that his vital signs are stable, ignoring the vines under his skin for now. Strange, he assumes, can make his own way over.

[starseedling]

Steven is breathing, and his heart is still beating, though it is moving at a rhythm that sounds somehow offbeat and unnatural. Regular heart dysfunction or a magical thing? Hard to say. For now, Steven is pretty solidly unconscious.

As the light from the Blue Rose has faded, some odder after effects have become apparent. The gems in Steven's body, most notably his belly gem, his horns, and the freckles on his face and arms, look like they'd started to shift color. Right now, they are left as a mixture of both pink and blue, with the blue lining the edges as if creeping in from the outside.

[kingsroads]

Strange is still muttering the spell as he runs over to Lambert and now Steven. He's got an odd expression on his face, like he's desperately trying to push past some of the helplessness and fear that still lingers and focus on the magic instead.

As he looks over Steven, Strange frowns. Transformative magic. Or something like that. Hell, his magic is worth a shot. He holds his hands over Steven as he finishes casting his spell-breaking incantation, the one he ended up using on the bicorn and that he's been practicing ever since.

Of course, it works best with that dumb physical trigger. So, as he finishes casting the spell, Strange leans in to give Steven a small kiss on the forehead.

[starseedling]

The spell ripples through Steven, and while it doesn't make a mark on the new blue pigment or the vines still penetrating his skin, it does cause Steven to shiver and shift, whimpering softly. His eyes open part way and then close again.

His skin is cold, but his forehead is quite hot.

[anti_nonsense]

With Steven removed from the immediate danger, Rita folds her arms, pondering to herself.

"What the hell just happened...? It's like it was trying to magically spread its roots inside him, like a parasite of some kind..." But this might not be the time to hypothesize.

She approaches Strange and Steven, looking down at the changed color in the latter. "We should get him to a medic for an examination. I'd like to perform a full magic analysis, too." That can wait until he's somewhere safer, though. Also, by we, she definitely means someone else should carry him.

[periphrasing]

Thanks Lambert, and sorry Lambert, Peridot's not stopping to see how you fared with having that sudden weight dropped on you. She scrambles free and directly to Steven's side as fast as she can, wide-eyed, pupils contracted to pinpricks, the tuft on her tail puffed out in alarm.

The discoloration in his gem is by far the most alarming thing. She starts to reach for him, but hesitates significantly when she sees that. It calls up terrifying memories, a certain orange gem in a kindergarten, blue-green splotches spreading across her form.

That particular affliction hadn't been literally on the gem, though. This is obviously something different, albeit equally mysterious and worrying. She grips his shoulder nonetheless, and says nothing. Rita's words seem to fall on deaf ears, and she looks at a loss as to what to do here.

[whattaprick]

When Steven flinches, Lambert frowns.

"Better not do that again," he tells Strange. With Peridot at Steven's side and the boy as stable as far as he can tell, he moves away to retrieve his discarded belongings, the bracers scooped up with his tail and spreading the hoodie out.

"Help me fold his wings away," he tells Peridot, simply, before he uses the cloth to bundle to carefully bundled Steven up in his arms -- and looks at the Ringmaster, head cocked slightly. She probably has to clean the mess up here, and put the Rose away where it belongs, but medic or not, she's healed before.

"Can you do anything for him, or will fae magic make this worse?" He asks, directly.

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya looks down at Steven with a pensive frown as he's surrounded. The Rose is passive enough that he feels this is enough space between them, and carefully detaches it from his own hand before leaving it to float in... well, there really isn't much of a presentation to it here, is there?

He shakes his hand absently before drifting down, back to the gravity zone and the floor. He stops beside the Ringmaster, because Steven's probably crowded enough, but he's still listening to the conversation.

[lordofthering]

The Ringmaster takes that as an invitation to approach, looking over Steven with more scrutiny. She brings a claw to the base of one of the crystalline vines still hanging from his arm, and casually flicks it off - the vine breaks off, leaving nothing but Steven's undamaged flesh beneath it. So, it wasn't piercing him. Not really.

"It's not an enchantment," she says, partly in Strange's direction and for his benefit. She breaks off a couple more vines with her claw as she speaks. "It's a change. The same way you lot change appearances based on your contact with my magic, this looks to be the effect of high exposure to Blue Rose."

She glances up in Syrlya's direction.

"But it can't be that simple. Syrlya had prolonged contact with it when it was first retrieved, and it didn't do anything but heal his arm..." She looks again to verify. "And, I suppose, those blue roses he sprouts sometimes."

But those were normal roses that just looked like the Blue Rose. This is difficult to diagnose.

"My best guess is that he isn't damaged... his body must be stressed from something like this coming on so quickly."

[kingsroads]

Thank God that the Ringmaster's explaining things. Because as he sees that his magic doesn't really do anything, Strange panics slightly, immediately trying to wrack his brain for any other spell that might help in this situation, looking over at the rest with a 'what the hell should I do' kind of expression. He only calms down slightly once the Ringmaster starts talking, giving a sensible explanation for all of this...except that one question she's got.

"As for the difference between Steven and Syrlya's reactions, perhaps it has something to do with the way carnival members were changed after Portland?" Which granted, some of the people in the room don't really know the specifics about, but that's not Strange's secret to blab. He's at least assuming the Ringmaster knows what he's talking about (and if not, hey guess what RM, you're about to learn some fun new info!)

"If not that, there is magic placed on Steven that has not been placed on Syrlya. The magic is placed on myself as well if that helps any." Something that even less people know about but this is a problem, Strange wants to find an answer, and considering this secret involves him (and Steven just went through some major shit) he's perfectly fine blabbing about it.

[atouts]

And there goes Strange, talking up a storm about things he'd more or less hoped to keep limited knowledge. It's a little inevitable at this point, he supposes, seeing how Lambert blew the second part of that with the supervisors earlier. So, no, he won't glare and tell the man to shut up, he'll just sigh and make his way out of the float zone.

Slowly.

Getting stuck up here was a hell of a lot simpler than kicking his way back down and dropping back out into normal gravity. He actually goes back to crow just as he gets there since fluttering down is better than falling on his face, thanks. Then it's back again, dusting himself off and grumbling at the other magician, "If you're going to ask me to go back up there and test your theory, you're about to be gravely disappointed."

[whattaprick]

"So, what -- just bed rest and he'll be fine?" Lambert looks dubious, though at which part of the proceedings is sort of hard to tell. All of it, probably. He's remarkably out of his depth here.

He'll watch the Ringmaster break off pieces of the plant like its no big deal a moment longer, as people start yammering on about possible magic theories about this, and glances at Peridot and Rita. "There's a vial of red phoenix fruit and a dose of healing draught in the pouch on my hip. Your call if you want to use them."

Given the choice, he knows what he'd dose Steven with, but he'll readily acknowledge his judgement isn't what anyone should go with for substance ingestion. And sure, the Ringmaster said Steven wasn't damaged, but he's not certain which of those would help his body cope with recovering from stress, either.

[lordofthering]

The Ringmaster sighs, putting a hand to her head. It seems like she's going to have to bring some people up to speed.

"Steven is a Summer Court faeblood, yes," she says, seeing no point in keeping that bit a secret. Being ashamed of it is kind of ridiculous, anyway. "And the Blue Rose is an intensely powerful artifact of faerie creation, containing the magic of both the Courts." She speaks as if quoting something. "'In the days before their eternal feud, they combined their efforts to create wonders beyond either's imagining... Bearing the marks of the Sun and Shade, the Flame and Frost, the Wood and its Rot - these wonders were possessed by both Courts, and neither.'"

"The Blue Rose, it seems, is the embodiment of the 'Flame and Frost' portions... though, curiously, it has manifested as a plant. A rose, specifically. The Summer Court is often represented by heraldry related to plant life, but... it's not quite as straightforward as it sounds. Plants are... well, they can be a type of being, like Syrlya for instance. However, it's not actually plants that the entire Court has dominion over, it's just that plants identify more strongly with the Summer Court's dominion of 'growth.'"

"Summer is growth, Winter is decay. Abundance and scarcity. Decay is all part of a plant's lifecycle too, but a plant doesn't want to decay. It wants to grow. The Winter is a cruel necessity... the need for death to enable new life to take place. This is also the reason for Summer's relationship with fire... fire wishes to grow, but past a certain point, all that can remain is the ash of Winter."

"Wyld Fae are unrelated to all of this, of course. We can embody both sides of an element, unbound to a Court. My mother, for instance, was a phoenix - both the rise of flame and the rebirth of ash."