lostcarnival | ⇨ THE ATHENAEUM

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⇨ THE ATHENAEUM

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 47 - Day 58 ish
Where: The Athenaeum
What: The carnival arrives at book world. First week, they'll be performing for magical manifestations of book characters. Second week, it's time to hunt (for books, in the library.) Around Day 58 some stuff will occur.
Warnings: Reading is mandatory.

FAERIE TALES↴

Though the carnival will be performing for its guests in the first week, they are welcome to search the Athenaeum while they are off duty during that time. The manifestations of story characters will be out in full force during performance week, with animals, people, objects, and even locations growing out from various tales. Most are distracting at worst, and will be curious to check out the carnival. Some, however, can be as dangerous as they were in their stories of origin. You know what to do.

► IT'S TIME TO ROLEPLAY: The best way to deal with book ghosts is to follow their narrative to its logical conclusion - turn the tables, work the story so it ends in your favour! Naturalistic and narratively satisfying plotting will have the manifestations following your lead. However, push too hard and introduce too many plot holes, inconsistencies, or illogical plot twists, and they will reject your reality utterly, becoming quite aggressive in the process. You can also use your natural abilities and powers to fight them in a traditional sense, but in the Ringmaster's experience, it's best to fight reality benders by bending reality right back at them. If you aren't careful, it's possible to be dragged fully into a story's reality, and then things get really messed up.

► IT'S ALSO TIME TO READ: The carnival came here for a purpose, and that purpose is to research. Specifically, the Ringmaster is looking for information on the Queen's Miracles - the set of ancient fae artifacts that the Blue Rose is one of. The carnival needs these artifacts to defend itself, but nobody knows where they've been for thousands of years. That's what the books are for. However, nothing is stopping you from pursuing knowledge for personal reasons. The halls are open to your perusal, and only your heart can guide you to the book you truly seek. Check the plot post to see what's allowed, and sign up to find plot info or other important game information below.

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"Heh?" Carly, having literally gained the habit of floating about with her face in a book, is unfortunately one of those unfortunate enough to be 'in the vicinity'. The other has been tugging fruitlessly at her toes for the last 3 minutes, and now poor Nuna is simply uttering a huffing 'MAR!' as her trainer bothers looking up.

Before what, she would have asked, but 'what' reveals itself pretty clearly. Carly blinks a few times at the scene, slowly moving her book away from her face. "...Heeeeehhhhh?? This has happened before..??"

"Yeah," Lambert answers sourly, looking around. "The library's a bitch."

The scene they've been dropped into takes its time resolving around them, and it's the smell that hits first: wet wood and rotting fish, the sounds of a bustling town coming to life around them. A bell tolls the hour, and then.

"Fuck. Oxenfurt." How did he go from not reading a single thing about his world to constantly ending up in stories from it?

"Is that really how we should put it..." Carly's mutterings are apparently falling on deaf ears, even if they were intended for herself-Nuna, after all, has done nothing but nod in reply to Lambert's words. As the scent of the area finally hits however, Carly's muttering cuts short for a loud choke, the woman tucking her book under her arm and covering her nose.

"OOH- Blech-! What is that..!?" she asks, and Lambert's cursing doesn't entirely answer. It looks like a town, but that's about all she can figure out for herself, after all. "Oxenfurt..? ...Hey, you know this place..!?"

"Wa-ak!"

“The fish. This is a market,” Lambert supplies. Despite his own irritation, Carly’s obvious discomfort still makes him smirk, and he turns to let his gaze run over the skyline. It’s incredible, really. Almost looks like the real thing.

“I’ve been through here a few times. It’s the largest university in the Northern Realms.” As he speaks, he’s gazing around, wary. Unless they’ve simply stumbled into a picture book, he doubts very much things will be picturesque for long.

"Ohhhh..." So she observes, with all the excitement of someone told it'll be unseasoned brussel sprouts for dinner. Hovering around to get a better view all the same, she puts the smell from mind. "I'd ask why a university would have this kind of market, but...I guess it's not really different from a modern one having a corner store nearby... ...How did you manage to find a story about somewhere you've been though..!?"

Lambert gives Carly a briefly amused look, brows raised.

"Yeah. You don't think those scholars feed themselves with magic, do you? We're on the Pontar, one of the largest rivers around. It was a port city before it became the home of Oxenfurt Academy--" he waves around at the stone walls, soaring towers, the chatter of a city coming to life. "And now it's this."

As for Carly's question, he can only shrug. "I didn't know I was reading a story about Oxenfurt at first. I was trying to look for a place where you could find out more about old legends."

"Obviously not..!! ...Sometimes it's hard to remember commerce before...warehouses and factories though, you know? The Carnival doesn't normally catch our own fish, right..?" But they totally get them fresh.

Somehow.

Probably magic.

But anyway. "Mnhhh, so it snuck up, like when I was re-" Ah. She coughs, changing gears on her words. "I guess you just found this, anyway; but what story about this place is it telling then..?"

Makes enough sense, Lambert supposes. Though he does catch his own fish, explosively, it's not something he cares to get into here.

"Like when you were reading what?" Lambert asks, cocking his head. Bit too obvious of a subject change there, Carly! At the very least, the scenery around them doesn't seem to be pressing a particular story or another, so Lambert doesn't feel too bad about the delay, raising a brow at Carly and grinning wide.

"AHEHEHHEHHEEeeee-" Shit, shoot, fuck, no-

Stop grinning-!! "It's not important..!! It's not important at all!!" she insists, puffing up about as much as light and feathers allow. "You should be glad you didn't find it anyway, it'd just mean even more bike races!!"

As vague as Bike Races should be, Carly being from a world which is basically All Bike Races is probably giving far too much toward what and where her last book pulled out.

Oops.

Though they're in a fictional depiction of Lambert's world, that doesn't mean the specters aren't unaware of their erstwhile visitors -- at Carly's shriek of dismay, more than a few heads turn, and a couple of guards even reach for their swords. Lambert just laughs, though, hand on hip.

"You know that just makes it sound more suspicious, right?" He grins, then turns, beckoning for her to follow.

"Come on. If this is a story about a witcher, it probably starts from a contract."

"MMMM-! No matter how suspicious, I'm not telling!" She would never live it down!

As it is, she absolutely follows, even if her eyes are drawn every-which-way. "A contract..? ...Oh! Right, that was a thing," she mutters, arms crossed behind her back. "With a city like this, I can't think of it being...too monstery at least..." Probably human-based shenanigans right? Right???

Oh Carly.

Lambert snorts.

"I'm a witcher, Carly. We kill monsters." So of course it's going to be a monster. It takes little enough effort to find a noticeboard, a hundred scraps of paper of varying quality legibility pinned to it, advertising everything from ointments to more carnal pleasures. Lambert glances over it all with a practiced eye, then reaches out to stab a finger into one who seems to be written on better quality parchment than the rest.

"There. Here's our contract." And should Carly care to read it herself:

By orders of our most magnanimous ruler, King Radovid V, any itinerant monster slayer reading this notice is obliged to abandon any currently-unresolved contracts immediately and devote himself to tracking and slaying this monster. The beast in question has befouled the cradle of human intellect, the city within whose territory lies the oldest of academies of learning, namely: Oxenfurt. The swordsman who puts an end to its criminal doings will be rewarded with the King's full generosity.

-Commander of the Oxenfurt City Regiment

"There's never any downtime on those? What kinds of monsters are even inside a city?!" she starts, before eventually going quiet to look at the contract itself. Alright, alright, let's look at it...

"...Kinda presumptuous, but I guess a King's generosity probably means a lot of cash...." At least she gets the picture. Mostly. "Haaaauuuuhhh, so they really do find their way in though..."

Monsters aren't always giant, Carly!!

"You're not wrong. Most monsters would stay away from a city full of people. Even most monsters aren't up to facing down a fully armed guard."

Lambert grins at Carly, slow and wicked. "...But some monsters feed off of people. Come on, let's go see why they're kicking up such a fuss about."

He saunters away, fully confident in his step, though at a pace that's easy enough for Carly to keep up with. Luckily, for the story's purposes, it seems to treat them as glamoured as they normally would be.

"HEhhh....Don't all monsters..." Ah, well. Carly doesn't argue, merely following along and looking about. "AaaAAaaah, if you say so... ...They were sort of vague with the contract, though-is that normal?"

As Carly doesn't ask, she's spared a sarcastic lecture on the economic impact of regular monster attacks on farming communities. At the actual question though, Lambert nods.

"They are. Most of the job is just figuring out what the hell they've got in the first place." Their steps take them to a barracks, filled with the sound of chatter of guards and the clink of ale mugs. It takes little enough effort to find the 'commander' of the regiment, a harassed looking man, who outlines the situation in broad strokes, answering Lambert's pointed questions as best as he can but clearly growing increasingly frustrated.

By the time they leave, Lambert's looking more thoughtful than anything else, though. "So the deaths have all been a fairly small distance from each other. Must mean the monster must be coming back to the same place, or its got its lair somewhere there."

"Hmmm. Sounds a bit like detective work, if you ask me..." Or scouting, or...Reporting...

Carly actually watches that a bit-she's got a feeling she wouldn't get as much out of them in this place anyway, but she does at least seem to be taking a good look around while Lambert does all of that. "Not too different from how human beings do it, at least...did they say anything about the bodies though?" That seems...Important.

“The victims are beggars and drunks, so they didn’t look too closely into it.” Lambert shakes his head, snorting. His feelings on the matter are clear enough — typical. Why would anyone remember what happens to some drunken, impoverished bastards?

“Easy enough to find the morgue if we want to get and get the medic who autopsied them to let us have a look, if the bodies are still there. Otherwise, we can go ahead and investigate the scene of the crime.”

"Hmmnn...exactly like detective work," she mutters, though there seems to be something in her tone that implies 'reporting' would absolutely be the better term now. "Those definitely sound like good places to start... ...How long has it been since the last incident though?" she adds, crossing her arms.

"...If it's been recent enough... ...we should probably get there first; before it's muddied up," she adds, frowning.

"Just about a week," Lambert shrugs, frowning. "Seems like its been happening on and off, no real pattern to it except the victims are found in the morning. We'll learn more when we examine where the attacks happened and get a look at the bodies."

Asking around eventually finds them a witness -- points them to where the victims where last seen, attack sites with smears of blood and (when Lambert looks up) signs of scratches on stone. They eventually examine the bodies they do, after a surly man with a pock-marked face lets them in. He looks askance at Carly, like his story-generated brain is trying to make sense of how she fits in the story, but Lambert brushes past him and shuts the door firmly.

Then, well, there's the bodies. Three in total, in various states of 'awful.' Lambert doesn't flinch as he moves limbs and turns heads, but the inspection doesn't take long. With that, they're thankfully quickly quit of that place, and Lambert delivers his pronouncement as soon as they're outside.

"We're dealing with a katakan. A kind of vampire," he clarifies.

Through the investigation, Carly wonders if perhaps she might be some sort of Witch again. Or maybe she's just dressed really nice, she can't tell- either way, a number of stares have been less confused and more interested, which has had her giving NPCs rather warning remarks. Honestly.

She pulls a face with most of the bodies, but says nothing- preferring to contribute where she can to investigation until Lambert makes his announcement. "Mn? A 'kind' of Vampire?" she repeats, blinking. "How many types of those are there..?"

"A lot," Lambert shrugs. "The smarter they are, the more humanlike they can act and disguise themselves. You call those higher vampires. Then you've got kinds that just feed off of livestock and don't think about much except their next meal. A katakan's a bit in between, depending on how old it is." He frowns, considering.

"Apparently, it's got a thing for drunks. None of the victims were sober the last time they were seen, and they obviously didn't put up much of a fight." Little sign of struggle, not much violence done to the body. "If we want to catch this thing, we're gonna have to lure it out with its favorite food."

Lambert's note about the Katakan's preferred habits result in a pondering squint from Carly for a moment. "...Hnnn...either it's an easy way to catch someone then, or... ...hmn... I wonder if they can't drink anything else..."

She sort of wonders if that's how a vampire would get drunk, actually. But regardless. "So we need someone drunk, and alone...probably near the bars the last victims have been seen at..."

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⇨ THE ATHENAEUM

LOST....in a 'good' book...

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timeskipping a bit

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timeskipping to get to the juicy bits and fudging the deets i don't remember

LAUGHS fair tbh

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