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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And Strange looks over at Peridot to give her a frown and a bit of a look. "Peridot, if I tried to turn anything into a gem, I would turn it into a literal rock."

Granted, the gems are literal rocks as well, but she knows what he means! A literal nonsapient rock! Strange can only do so much, okay? And magic that replicates complex gem workings isn't one of them.

"Besides, gems probably aren't featured in whatever story this bird is from. How can she know to be something she doesn't know exists?"

"It was just a suggestion," Peridot grumps, unrepentant. And then she remembers why she came over here in the first place, and a look of urgency twists her features once more. "But nevermind that! I need to talk to you, right now! You can finish your ridiculous avian themed fable later, this is a matter of of utmost importance!"

Strange makes a little 'shoo' gesture towards the swan. She gives him an annoyed honk before flying to the top of one of the bookshelves: far enough away that she can't eavesdrop but close enough that she can straight up divebomb Strange if he tries to make a break for it.

Because Peridot's expression tells Strange that whatever this is, this isn't good. Best to keep giant murder birds away from the conversation for the moment.

"What is it?" he asks, not bothering to hide the curiosity and worry from his voice.

Peridot pauses before answering, pricks her ears up and glances around in all directions, just to make extra sure they're not being eavesdropped upon. Once satisfied, she looks back up at Strange, her expression grave.

"So as you probably know, I've been doing some research on the Miracles. Its' been mostly fruitless, but today..." She trails off, looking ill. It's rare that Peridot is ever at a loss for words like this! She loves explaining stuff more than anything, she adores lording info over other people like a tyrant! But she just can't do it in this case. The words are failing her.

"It's probably easier if I just let you read it yourself," she says quietly, and hands Strange a book.

Taking the book, Strange reads it. His expression goes from quizzical, to worried, to slightly sick as he reads over the passage Peridot had pointed out. Well. This certainly wasn't good. They have confirmation that the Summer Court knew about the Blue Rose, knew the Ringmaster had it, and were trying to find a way to catch up to the carnival and get the Rose back.

Now more than ever, Strange is certain that they need to get the other two Miracles. He's trying to keep his voice steady and trying to keep calm, but it's obvious that Strange thinks this information is bad news as well.

"We knew they were tracking us somehow. Nightshade attacked Lambert in Wismuth." And Childermass as well, though Strange is keeping that detail to himself. "This only serves to confirm that. But since Steven is warded from the Rose Queen by that spell...perhaps they're tracking us by the Ringmaster's magic? They did recognize it."

"Either the Ringmaster's magic or the Blue Rose itself-- It doesn't matter! This is all so bad I don't even know where to START," Peridot whimpers, burying her claws in her hair. She's coming apart at the seams thinking about all the possible implications of this, all the ways this could put so many people she cares about in danger. "Steven... Steven's protected from the Rose Queen herself but how do we know if that extends to her followers?"

"It should extend to Nightshade as well. After all, that's who Childermass bargained to protect me from." Which is a sore spot for Strange, based on the little scowl on his face. So many people have been hurt already due to Nightshade's actions and here he is, safe and sound and useless.

Peridot's falling apart, Strange is trying to stay calm and stay collected (despite the fact that no, he's also closer to falling apart than he realizes). He's supposed to be the fae expert here. He's supposed to know what to do.

"I don't think the protection extends to other Summer Fae, like Ignatius. If we ever return to the Summerlands, I can see about adding him onto the spell's framework, but there's no way we would be able to ward Steven against every Summer Fae."

"He probably wouldn't want to be, anyway," Peridot groans. "He can be annoyingly self-sacrificing sometimes."

She pauses. Frowns. "Ignatius was the fiery one from that assault on the Queen's garden, right?" She never actually learned his name, or had anything to do with him. "Where does he fit into this, aside from serving the Summer Court?"

At Peridot's question, Strange nods. "In Portland, Rita was one of his changelings. I don't think she's faeblooded, but I've no idea how a non-faeblooded changeling of a Portland fae would work with all...this."

There's a vague hand gesture as Strange says 'this.' All this bullshit, all this nonsense, all this changeling and faeblooded and alternate universe stuff caused by stupid Portland.

"I never really spent any time with him when I was in Nightshade's realm," Strange explains, with a little frown. "Most of what I know is gossip and watching him during the disruption of the ritual at the Count of Crows'."

"Rita should definitely be informed about this then," Peridot murmurs, looking even more troubled. The whole carnival needs to know, really... she just wanted to make sure to tell her closest friends first.

She shivers at the mention of the Count, too. That whole ritual is just made of nothing but uncomfortable memories. "It's a small blessing that at least we have no indication that the Winter Court is on to us yet," she groans. "I'd really rather not cross paths with that guy again. I think he might still be a bit ticked off about the fact that I threw hot iron at his face..."

The problem with Strange arriving with the Summer Court is that he has absolutely no clue what happened in the Count of Crows fight except Lambert got possessed, Childermass got shirtless, and Lambert did something dumb (and really, the last one happens in about 3/4 of the fights Lambert gets into.) So Peridot revealing that she threw hot iron at him comes as a total surprise to Strange.

"You did that?" Wow. That's pretty badass. Strange is definitely impressed. "I wish I could have seen that."

"Rrrrriiiiight, you were, uh... Compromised during that ordeal," she recalls. That's probably the politest way to phrase that, right? She'd almost forgotten Strange tried to kill her. "Yeah, it was one of my more impressive moments," Peridot agrees, puffing up and looking rather chuffed. "I had to do something to help, seeing as Lambert was practically killing himself trying to get to Childermass. And let's face it: the big jerk pretty much deserved it."

Reminiscing on past victories is much more pleasant than freaking out about dangerous battles looming in the future.

"He did deserve it," Strange admits. Fuck you Count of Crows, don't kidnap Childermass. There's a small pause before Strange continues. "You don't have to be polite, you know. You can say I was enthralled and murderous. I won't take offense to that."

He can't even say 'slightly' murderous, as Strange tried to kill Yuya, Lambert, and Peridot. Slightly murderous goes out of the window when you try to kill three or more people. Strange idly rubs the mirrored scars around his wrist as the conversation continues.

Peridot shrugs. "I could. But I won't." She pauses a moment, frowning. "You probably don't remember this either, but I actually chased Nightshade off as well. I tried to use the same tactics on her as I did on the Count." IE, red hot iron poker, steered with telekinetic powers towards it's mark like a fae seeking missile. "Her, I did not manage to hit, unfortunately."

"That was when you were possessed by the Earth Spirit, wasn't it? I vaguely remember that." Most of what Strange remembers from that particular fight was an intense desire to protect Nightshade, getting a blast of psionics to the chest, and then intense confusion at the fact that Nightshade straight up ditched him.

"I wonder...whatever you and Lambert did to contact the Earth Spirit, do you think you could do it again? Depending on whatever world we go to next, there might be something close enough in that world to count. And it can't hurt to have more allies on our side."

Fun fact: Strange has absolutely no idea how the whole Earth Spirit thing went, as he was pretty much locked out of that side of the plot.

"No," Peridot replies immediately. She looks sort of annoyed. "As nice as it would be to have that kind of power on our side, the Earth Spirit is about as neutral of an entity as they come. The only reason it helped us out back then was because it's life was essentially in danger. Also, even if we were able to contact it, letting it inhabit your body causes soul damage. So I'd classify calling upon it as a "last ditch" method of retaliation."

Ah, dang. Strange frowns a little, thinking about that. Still, a last ditch method of retaliation is still a method of retaliation. Peridot might not want them to summon the Earth Spirit but hey, it's definitely an option.

"Were there any other methods from Portland that could help with the fae thing?"

She shakes her head dejectedly. "Not that I can think of. I don't know if there's much we can do other than stay vigilant and stay prepared."

Strange is the sort of person who, when confronted with a problem, tries to find a way to fix it as soon as possible. As such, he's not good at things like 'staying vigilant' and 'being prepared.' He makes a noise of aggravation as he looks over at Peridot.

"There's got to be something more we can do than that. Surely one of these books has something like...a warding spell for the entire carnival, or something. If the Starlight can do it, I should be able to do it as well," Strange says, with absolutely no proof that he'd be able to do something like a warding spell.

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⇨ THE ATHENAEUM

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