lostcarnival | ⇨ 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

On the other side of the shelf, Foster can see the scenery but only hear the ghost; however, he can also hear Yuya, and he goes still on his side of the shelf, the book he'd pulled still open in his paws.

The ghost shakes his wizened head, soft wisps of white hair trailing like smoke into the air.

"There's nothing you can do now... her soul has already departed. If only she'd had time to recover before the plague... but there's no bargaining with death."

That... still doesn't tell him who died or what his role in this is. Is he supposed to know her? Should he be crying?

Well, if he doesn't have any context he's going to have to fake it until he makes it. It's just one of those books, after all. He sucks in a breath and squares his shoulders.

"I still want to see her. Will you take me?" She's important to the story, so that seems like the most obvious direction to progress to. "Please."

Foster is still listening--but with the book in his paws, he begins to move, one foreleg crossing over the other as he slowly walks to the end of the shelf, pausing at the edge before taking one more step and leaning around the edge to watch.

If Yuya glances up at the right time, he might actually lock eyes with him.

But the old man is still talking, shaking his head with regret.

"I can't take you... not yet, my boy, not yet." And he smiles wistfully, sadly.

Oh, so it's not going to be that easy. Yuya's lower lip juts out, but he's not going to take the no that easily. "Why not? Don't I at least get to say goodbye?"

It feels weirdly foreign, saying that, a little more annoyed than upset. He's trying to weave the story in his head, but it's awfully determined to keep him in place.

He glances around to see if any of the village huts stick out, so he can just go find this dead girl himself, and that's when he spots Foster with the book. He raises a brow, sharing the silent stare off before looking back at the old man.

If Yuya is determined to go through with seeing his deceased, he will first have to contend with Foster.

It's not really possible for a horse to sneak, but Foster crosses the smoky ghostscape at a surprisingly light, floating trot. He ditches the book to do it, and gives the old man a very specific, sideways glance on his way to head Yuya off at the doorway--

(But one gets the impression the ghost had known he was there all along.)

None of the little huts stand out, if Yuya is determined; the nearest one has a shroud in the door, another has a darkened door.. perhaps the right hut will be whichever one he chooses.

"What do you plan to do?" Foster asks, bright eyed, direct, maybe a little too curious--and in a tone that implies he's already decided what he thinks Yuya should be doing.

Yuya looks between the doors before deciding it's probably the shrouded one. If he's wrong, he can just check the other one, right? With the old man of little help, he turns to head straight for it and straight into Foster. They're probably both stuck here until they see this through, aren't they? So it's going to take some walking together.

Yuya looks briefly uneasy, but he sucks in a breath and squares his shoulders.

"I don't know," he admits with a shrug because, honestly, he doesn't. "But I think I need to see her first, so I know what's going on."

"I don't think you do, actually." Foster says it in a mild enough tone that he surprises himself, but he's not going to complain about it. It's not wrong in the same way most tones of voice from him aren't wrong--he doesn't really have a corresponding emotion, so whatever comes out of his mouth just kind of happens.

"Mmmm. Rather... I think you're supposed to go and see her somewhere else." His tail swishes at his ankles.

"... But she's dead." Truthfully, he doesn't want to look at the corpse either, but what else is he supposed to do here? Unless she's not really dead, but then doesn't that mean there has to be a clue, or a note or something where she is?

Yuya leans over, pulling the shroud back a bit so he can peek through the doorway and see what's inside the hut.

Inside is a small, one-room livingspace with a firepit in the middle, though it's long since burnt down to ash. There's a stunningly generic array of furnishings: a low table with two short clay stools and bundles of plants and dried meat of unidentifiable origins hanging from the ceiling. By the remains of the fire, though, there lies a blanket-covered figure, a clearly taller than Yuya himself.

Foster isn't done yet, though.

"So? How do you think you'll bring her back?" Foster also peers in, over Yuya's head--but instead of sobriety at the sight of the deceased's covered body, he laughs.

"Not from there!"

Edited 2018-05-09 05:36 (UTC)

Yuya looks over his shoulder, withering at Foster's laughter. Even for a story that seems kind of insensitive.

"You think I'm supposed to... bring her back to life?" He sounds a little skeptical about that, but doesn't wait outside for an answer. Instead he creeps in, like being too noisy is going to actually disturb the dead, and approaches the bed.

He cringes, hesitating for a minute before reaching to pinch the covers in his fingers and pull the sheet up. Just enough to see her face. This is pretty messed up but there's no turning back now, what's he supposed to do if he doesn't even know who's dead to begin with?

Foster doesn't follow Yuya inside, in no small part because the doorway wasn't built with the intent of letting horses inside... and with his human torso above his animal one, he's much too large to fit easily. Instead, he lies down outside the door, keeping the shroud pushed to the side with one paw to watch.

The face of the deceased will be familiar to Yuya, however--for the entire second it's there.

There are not four but five people with that exact same face, after all.

Unfortunately, with messy dark hair around the body's shoulders and her eyes closed--possibly by the old man's hand--it's not entirely clear which, if any of them, this is meant to be. Not before the body just... disappears, leaving Yuya holding an empty blanket in the sombre darkness.

Yuya stills.

Whoever this story was supposed to be about, he wasn't expecting to recognize her. He wasn't expecting a face he could remember blind, and for the brief second she's there he can do little more than stare with wide eyes and a dry mouth.

"Y--" he breathes out, impulsively on the first name he thinks about to that face. And then she's gone.

Yuya throws the blanket back, running his hands over the bed in hurried panic as if that's going to reveal the secret to her disappearance, or just bring her back. "Wh--where did she go?!"

⇨ THE ATHENAEUM

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