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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Strange looks over right as Steven makes an expression where he looks kind of ill. He gets up from where he's at, straight up looks over Steven's shoulder at the book...and sees an illustration of himself with a dead mouse in his mouth.

Man, they just became something in the vicinity of friends and now Strange has to explain the dead mouse thing to Steven? Uncool, universe. He hems and haws for a moment, frowning slightly, before he makes an attempt at explaining.

"Yes, well, magic in my world can be different than expected." Partly because Strange drunk dead mouse juice, partly in the sense that the magic worked a certain way where Strange made dead mouse juice in the first place. "I didn't choose the vessel to be a dead mouse, by the way."

And now, what Strange had probably assumed was a foregone conclusion:

"Wait a minute, that's you?!" he asks, looking up at Strange in surprise. It's not disgust, even, just surprise - though now that he's thought of it, the drawing does look a lot like him.

Steven's confusion is confusing Strange. It's his turn to look over at Steven in surprise. "What? Of course that's me!" he says, despite the fact that the drawing isn't a 100% likeness and there's room for error. "Didn't you know about the, erm, madness thing?"

Portland happened! He thought everybody knew about the madness thing after he went bonkers again.

Steven has to pause at that, trying to stir up his memory. Strange has acted really weird before, but Steven just kind of assumed that was just his thing. Most people don't have to eat mice to be crazy.

"...Maaaaybe," he says, rubbing his chin. "But I think I forgot."

He just read the story though. He doesn't need to ask why Strange did it. He wanted to see fairies, obviously. He flips back a few pages, looking at the drawings thoughtfully.

"They're really nice pictures of you," he says. "I like the one where you turn the old lady into a cat. It's so sweet..."

To be clear, he means sweet as in 'adorable', rather than 'radical'.

Most people's reactions on hearing the phrase 'I turned an old lady into a cat' tend towards 'what the fuck' or 'jesus christ Strange, why would you do that.' Thinking it's sweet is...unexpected. As such, Strange just brightens up at Steven's reaction, giving the kid a little smile. There we go! He's sweet!

"That was what she wanted," Strange responds, with a little shrug. "I gave the woman her heart's desire, she gave me mine in exchange." There's a pause, before his smile grows bigger, like he's just realized something. "I suppose that's technically one of my first magical contracts!"

And that one worked out relatively good for all involved. See, everybody who was doubting Strange's proficiency with his creepy blood quill, he's got this.

"I wouldn't be very happy about having to eat a mouse, but if I was an old lady, I'd probably like being a cat, too." He pauses, briefly. "...Only one cat, though."

Which is one of those things he says with no explanation that makes absolutely no sense without context. He carries on like he's not really expecting it to be questioned, either.

"Were you okay afterwards, though? Being mad sounds kinda... well, hard."

Strange is about to ask wait a minute, what does he mean by only one cat, but then Steven keeps talking and the subject's changed and alright, he'll just ask about that one cat thing later.

"It took a while, but I was alright in the end." For a certain definition of alright, of course. He doubts he can ever be 100% alright, not as long as he's cursed and separated from Arabella. But he ended all of this sane, alive, and in one piece which really, as soon as the curse hit, Strange was certain he'd lose at least one of the three.

"The biggest problem was the hallucinations. Pineapples, cats, candles...it's damn hard to try and shoo away cats when there aren't any there." Since there's really no way to dodge the topic and Steven isn't really showing any signs of judging him, Strange is a lot more forthright about the subject of madness than he usually is.

"Oh... yeah, I bet," Steven says, thinking about that. He's definitely not judging at all. He doesn't have much experience with that kind of madness, but...

"Sometimes I've seen stuff that made me think I was going crazy... but I guess most of that was just visions I have because of my powers." Like when he had a total panic attack in the presence of the Cluster. Or the stress hallucinations that come with being in a Fusion. "Or, like, when I suddenly think about something that happened, and its like it's happening all over again."

"What are your powers, by the way?" Strange can't help but ask, as he looks over at Steven. "I know of the magic you can do here, but what could you do at home?"

Because Strange still hasn't gotten the whole 'half gem half person' deal solidified in his head. He knows Greg exists and, thanks to Peridot, he knows a fair deal about gem physiology and how gems work, it's how Steven specifically works that he doesn't have a clue.

And seeing something that happened? That's interesting. There's a few things about Strange's backstory that he'd rather Steven not see and a few things about other people's backstories that it would be damn useful if Steven did see.

"Um... there's lots of stuff, I guess," he admits, with a tone that suggests he's just as befuddled by it as anyone else. "Some of the things I can do from here is the same stuff, but bigger. Like, I could grow plants into little people back home, too."

He starts counting it off on his fingers.

"And I can summon a shield, make protective bubbles, jump really high, float, lift heavy stuff, fuse with other people, heal things, and... um. Sort of bring them back to life? But I only did that once and I don't really know how."

He puzzles over that for a moment, and then shrugs helplessly.

"But the one I was talking about was me kind of... leaving my body, and going into other people's bodies, or their dreams, or their memories? Or just... feeling stuff that other people are feeling. Though that got way more intense since I started being a faerie."

There's at least two different things here that Strange wants to question. One is the 'fuse with people' thing because what the hell does that even mean. But the more pressing question is the fact that Steven somehow managed to accidentally do necromancy.

Strange just stares, mouth slightly ajar, not even paying attention to that other bit about going into people's dreams. When he brought corpses back to life, that required blood! And incantations! And the bit where he had to spit in the corpse's mouth, but that's gross magic shit that Strange isn't going to focus on right now. And Steven somehow managed to bring someone back accidentally?

Strange thought that Steven didn't know much about his changeling magic. But no, looks like Steven doesn't know much about his magic period. "How do you bring someone back without knowing how?! That makes no sense!"

The depths to which Steven does not know things really knows no bounds.

"Well, it was like when I heal people but... I healed him from being dead! And then he turned pink and stopped having to eat and maybe he'll have superpowers now? I don't really understand."

He sighs, and refocuses his explanation.

"The magic I was born with isn't the same as the stuff that you and Mr Childermass have learned from studying. It's just... part of me, and most of it is controlled by my feelings, and sometimes things just happen and I never really end up figuring out what exactly I did or felt that caused it in the first place."

He sinks down onto the table, exhausted with himself.

"Gems are born with their powers, and know how to do everything they have to do from the day they're made. But... I'm only half gem, so I don't get that."

There's a brief moment where Strange looks like he's going to yell at every gem in the carnival. For someone so intent on learning and knowing things as Strange is, accepting something as 'it just happens' is not in the cards.

"Nothing 'just happens'," Strange points out. "Your magic expresses itself for a reason. What we need to do is find the particular triggers for your magic so you'll know why it acts up and the limitations of your magic so you'll know what you can do and how best to do it."

Steven doesn't even really disagree with that. He knows that he can get better at using things... there are just a lot of powers he's never tried to push his limits with.

"I've done a lot of training for my battle powers, but... I guess there's a lot of things I only end up using sometimes, when it comes up. Like the dream magic... I feel kind of weird doing it? Don't... you remember that time I found you in that dark place with the candle?"

It went okay, but he feels like showing up in a dream at all is sort of awkward.

"I...I'm not sure. I think so?" Remembering someone's dreams is hard to begin with, remembering a dream that someone had a few months ago is even harder. Still, there's something familiar about Steven's description that has Strange frowning slightly as he tries to remember.

That small little frown is still on his face as he continues to talk.

"It's no use practicing your magic if you only focus on the battle magic," Strange explains. "Magic is so much more than creating a shield or setting someone on fire. And if you want any help in testing your limits and developing that sort of magic, you only need to ask."

Steven frowns too, starting to snap a few pictures of the picture book with his phone while he thinks. Everything Strange does seems pretty different.

"I think Gems are more like faeries or dragons than wizards," he says. "We're just born with stuff we can do. It... probably doesn't work like you're used to."

It's a gentle warning more than a flat out denial.

"You can still practice it," Strange stubbornly responds. Because again, he's not accepting 'sometimes things just happen' as an answer. If they 'just happen', then Steven should be able to figure out why they happen, how they happen, and what he can do to make them happen on their own terms. And he might not be able to teach Steven how to do something the way he helped teach Yuya, but maybe he might be able to help Steven get a smidge of control over the other parts of his gem magic.

"Take that dream magic, for example. Can you choose to go into someone's dream?"

He's got a worrying feeling the answer is 'no.'

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⇨ THE ATHENAEUM

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