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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Of course her reacting like that just has him want to see it more, but even after he stands on his tiptoes he's still too short to really see.

"What is it? Let me see!"

"It's gross is what it is..! It's not animals at all!! It's..." Hmm. What would wo- oh.

"Medical!!"

YEAH. She's just rolling that shit up real fast now.

That actually still sounds more interesting than some of the things he's found, especially with how flustered she is, but he doesn't press her any further on that one.

"Okay... If you're sure."

"Euuggghhh, very..." she groans. "And I've seen a lot..."

Deep breaths...Hoooo...

She's put the scroll back but it's pretty easy for Susan to reach if he Really Wants. For now though, she keeps looking.

"Okay...let's try something else..."

He looks to where she's placed the scroll, keeping it in mind for when she seems distracted enough he can pocket it for later or something, but then he's distracted by watching her again.

"I don't know if there are any good books about animals... I looked at so many already."

"Don't be so sure!" she insists, back turned to scan the shelves. "I've found all kinds of things here after all, and...Oh!"

Hold on, she's got something. "Here we are...and good, good, it's a basic reader, so a good start..."

The book, from the outside, certainly looks basic. The inside is going to be more interesting, if she ever bothers to hand it over. She seems to be giving it a skim- flipping page after page with rapidly moving eyes.

It definitely has pictures, on the front, which is a good sign. Things with pictures are hard to find, he's found, and so he's already a little hopeful (even if of course he's still not sure about books at all). He's used to Lauren also trying to judge the books for him before handing them over, and so he waits patiently for Carly to finish giving it a look over.

"Is it good?"

"The Serpopard~" she cheers, holding the book over. "This looks to be from a more alien realm...but it's all stuff about the 'Serpopard'. Varieties according to where they live, different colours...it's a wild animal, and all there is to know about it is in here!"

Indeed there is- it seems to be some world's version of their big cat, with more inclination for running and striking rather than how normal cats work. It has sharp quills, a tail that acts akin to whiskers, and...it looks like at one point the book goes into detail about bones and muscles for the thing. It's definitely a LOT of pictures over words-the words are only ever simple paragraphs of information.

He honestly could do with even less words, but the pictures are enough that he doesn't even think about that yet, his eyes wide in amazement as he looks over the pictures on various pages.

"Woah... It's so cool!"

"Good~!" Ahh! Carly beams rather proudly at the success, before coughing as she remembers the point of this. "Butttt..! You have to try reading it still; at least sections, so that we can see where you stand on comprehension levels, alright?"

There is a pause, and...she shrugs. "...And the text should make what's in the pictures more clear, so." Or at least some of the pictures anyway.

His excitement fades and he practically pouts at the pages, but he nods anyway.

"...Out loud?"

"Ahh..." Oh.

Oh. "Oh, that's a good point...I can't really judge how well you're doing if I don't know how much you've read...out loud it is! Don't rush yourself either, ok? We don't have to get through the whole book to see where you are on this."

He nods, flipping back to the beginning (not because it's a story or anything, but because it's probably an intro to the animal or something so it Makes Sense). He hesitates a moment before reading slowly. Obviously rushing himself doesn't seem like it's a problem with this; as opposed to literally everything else Susan ever does, reading is a slow process, even a book meant for kids a few years younger than he is. At least at this level he doesn't get stopped up by too many words, although he still has to sound out more than a few.

It doesn't help that he's clearly getting frustrated by his attempts, either.

Carly, for her part, does her best to help- she lets him figure the words out, she lets him focus...she's getting a pretty good idea of his level as it is though, which is a good sign.

"Mn- not bad," she comments after a bit. "Not bad at all..! Mnn...it wouldn't be wrong to say there isn't 'school' where you're from, right? Or....not school in the sense of places like 'Wismuth'?"

He frowns at her question, and shakes his head after a minute.

"There are schools... But not in the forest. Only in towns and stuff." AKA where they can't live. It doesn't really bother him though, and he shrugs after a second.

"But school is boring, so, it's okay. When Lauren made me go to this wizard school it was the worst." Mostly because... Yeah he can only sort of read. Why Lauren thought this was a good idea, no one knows.

"Hmmmm...Well, if they didn't have them where you were..." She thinks about it...and she thinks she can guess what the issue is.

"HEH!? A wizard school? ...How old were your classmates, then..? Most cases, kids in schools will have been studying since they were...well, as little as 5 sometimes," she notes as she chews her lip.

"...If you haven't been studying all that time though, then you're not going to know what the other students know..! You need to take a crash course- catch up first, otherwise you won't know what's going on at all..!"

"They were all older than me? Like... Sixteen." Because apparently he was placed by magic ability level and nothing else, oops. Good job teachers.

He shrugs again though.

"I'm not going back to school, so, I don't need to know what they know. I can't do magic like that so there's no use in going back."

"HEHHH!?! What!?" Yeesh.

"Well...if it was just a magic school, it's pretty fair not to go..." Hmm.

"But that's a huge oversight!" she remarks, huffing. "At the very least, you should have studied with your age group first..." Complaining isn't going to get her anywhere though, so she sighs. "Well. At least we know where you're at...

"This one seems good for a slight challenge- a bit of a stepping stone forward," she adds, nodding. "...but it wouldn't be good for an enjoyable read right now... ...Unless you like it so far?" It IS just a fact book, to be fair. But she's not exactly keen on finding fiction pieces at the right reading level, when...well. Those tend to dumb the stories down for that purpose...

He looks to the book before shrugging once again.

"It's cool, but I mostly like the pictures." Because the words... Well, yeah, it's not really engaging. Even if it does look like a pretty cool animal.

"Hmmmm, I thought so..! In that case..." Well. Non-fiction it is, frankly. "We just have to find another one, with less words~ Something you can enjoy reading, instead of just 'being able' to read. The two are different things after all~"

It hasn't quite clued into her that, in fact, some people just don't like reading at all, but maybe it'll mean even more cool animals. She starts looking, in any case.

He's not sure that something he'll enjoy reading really exists, but he's happy to keep looking, fidgeting with the book in his hand as he watches her look over the shelves.

"D'you think they have any books about people going on adventures? Ones that aren't boring."

"Heh? Adventure books? Of course! There's loads..!" she remarks, frowning with a pause. "Mnnh...the problem is..."

Oh. Hold on. She has something perfect. "Ah-! Maybe we're in luck..! I didn't think there'd be something easy enough to read fast in here, that would be interesting fiction but..."

Aha. She pulls out one, skimming the back cover, and a few pages, before beaming.

"This one...I guarantee you'll like this one~! You don't have to read it out loud, either- we already did that test."

The front cover looks interesting, he has to admit - he's never quite seen an animal like that before. If she's so sure he'll like it, he should at least give it a try, right?

"It looks like it could be cool...," is all he says, not wanting to get excited for a book but at the same time agreeing that it does look kinda neat.

"It'll definitely be cool~ I read the first few pages, so-"

... "A-hm! ...If you want, we could read it together, too! It looks like a story with characters from a world like mine so...I could answer questions~"

He smiles at that suggestion.

"Yeah, okay! That could be fun."

⇨ THE ATHENAEUM

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spoilers it won't be dogs

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