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

Startled, Peridot gasps and slams the book shut, her ears sticking straight up in alarm. "Nothing!" she says too loudly. She pauses. Swallows thickly. "It's... It's nothing."

She's sweating bullets. She doesn't want to tell him? But she knows it'd be wrong NOT to tell him.

"...It's... Not nothing," she sighs lamely after a moment, and pushes the book over to him. He'll have to read it himself.

Well, that was a concerning way to introduce it. Steven's anxiety has spiked up almost as high as Peridot's by the time he reaching over to pull the book in front of him, squinting down at the page. He reads slow, trying to comprehend what has Peridot so shaken.

It doesn't take long, though. He puts the pieces together, and realizes the timeline of this story. This could have only been matter of weeks ago.

"This... This just happened. Didn't it?" He wants to make sure he's understanding this right.

"It's a magic library, Steven!" Peridot hisses, assuming he's in denial. "Who's to say that creepy Scribe doesn't just record everything automatically?"

"That's what I mean!" Steven says back, urgently. He's not in denial, he's making connections. "I... I knew what happened with the Rose must have let her know. That's why she was following us... that's why Nightshade was in Wismuth."

He's already starting to tear up.

"It's my fault."

Peridot frowns sympathetically at him. He's obviously really upset about this. She's upset too! But.

"Yes. It is," she says, with her typical Peridot brand bluntness. Sorry Steven. "But. it's probably only about 50% your fault at most, by my calculations. Think about it... the Ringmaster already suspected that the Rose Queen would be tracking us after the whole Portland incident. All you really did was inadvertently give them a lead."

She's trying to be rational about this. It's the only thing that can possibly keep her from panicking.

At least knowing that he can count on Peridot to be honest about that sort of thing means that her reassurances have more value. He makes himself think about what she said for a moment before he lets himself freak out more.

"I just... I thought if I could talk to it, it would help us protect the carnival. But... it doesn't work like that, here." He hugs himself at the shoulders, glancing away. "Now the Summer Court is chasing us and my gems are still blue and it didn't help anything."

His gems being blue has yet to stop freaking him out when he looks at them.

Steven being so down about this at least gives her something to focus on, which is good. It's also kind of annoying though, because she wants to panic about this and get moving on finding a solution, and Steven making this primarily about his own mistakes is kind of making that hard to do.

She snorts impatiently. "Okay, I'm going to stop you right there. Yes, your gems being blue is definitely unsettling. And yes, maybe touching that thing did lead some unfortunate consequences," Peridot lectures. "But that doesn't mean we didn't gain anything from doing it! Trying to communicate with the rose was an experiment, and in an experiment, any kind of result is useful, even if it's not the result you were necessarily looking for. You didn't know what would happen, I didn't know what would happen, and neither did Lambert or Syrlya or even the Ringmaster! But as a result of this endeavor, we know for sure now that the rose cannot be communicated with, and knowledge like that is always EXTREMELY valuable to have. So do go on feeling all guilty and sorry for yourself just for trying to help! Got it?"

Peridot's aggressive brand of optimism actually sort of works wonders in a situation like this. The fact that Steven is mostly upset about feeling like he was irresponsible means that being reminded not to waste time feeling sorry for himself is just what he needs.

Though his ears push back a little at some parts of it, he's obviously listening, and it seems like her words are hitting their mark. He steels himself at the end, and even though it's hard to shove away his fear and regret, he attempts to do so with a determined nod of agreement.

"Y-You're right," he admits, clenching his fists. He actually believes her. "And now that you found this... we know that Fae can sense stuff like this through people they're connected to. And we know that they're coming after us in advance!"

"Yeah! Exactly!" Peridot agrees enthusiastically, clenching her fists as well. It's a feedback loop of aggressively positive energy in here!

...Except there's still the problem that their enemies are definitely lurking, waiting to attack somewhere in the near future, and no matter how confident they feel about handling it, they can't be the only two people to know.

"...I should probably go tell the Ringmaster about this as soon as possible though, shouldn't I," she asks rhetorically, laughing nervously.

⇨ THE ATHENAEUM

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