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lostcarnival2018-05-11 01:57 pm
ringleaders) wrote in lostcarnival2018-05-11 01:57 pm
⇨ DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS
Who: Anyone out in the library.
When: Day 59
Where: The Athenaeum
What: Towards the end of the visit, we are visited by a series of worrisome NPCs, who may or may not be illusions. There will be at least 5 NPC toplevels posted overall, all happening in a similar time period ICly (in rough chronological order), so not everyone needs to be in every thread.
Warnings: Possibility of very real danger to anyone who participates. Remember that Sans has told everyone to travel in groups, so if you aren't, you'll probably get a scolding later.
When: Day 59
Where: The Athenaeum
What: Towards the end of the visit, we are visited by a series of worrisome NPCs, who may or may not be illusions. There will be at least 5 NPC toplevels posted overall, all happening in a similar time period ICly (in rough chronological order), so not everyone needs to be in every thread.
Warnings: Possibility of very real danger to anyone who participates. Remember that Sans has told everyone to travel in groups, so if you aren't, you'll probably get a scolding later.
TURNING THE PAGE↴ As the carnival continues to explore the Athenaeum in the pursuit of more information about the legendary Miracles, the tension is thick with the knowledge that the Summer Court could be in pursuit any day now. On Day 59, a series of threatening encounters will begin manifesting - but are they real, or an illusion? |
THE LAKE | OTA MEGATHREAD (EVENING)
Of greater note is the pale body of a naked woman floating on the surface, with the pads draped over her body like a death veil. You can faintly see her long hair spread beneath the water, but there is no sign of life.
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What isn't comforting is that there's a body in the water, which stops Lapis from going too far away from whoever it is that's around. Who she's quick to turn to, clearly hesitant in getting too close.
"Don't look at me, I didn't do it. She was already there."
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He really doesn't actually know her, obviously.
By this point, Herbert has ended up in a few story situations that required him to act as a Story Appropriate Medic, so seeing something that looks like a naked Ophelia floating in sudden story water has him making a put-upon face.
"Should I use this?" he asks the group, reaching forward to story-manifest what he can recall of Elizabethan medicine in a doctor's bag he's holding abruptly. "Or would, a post-mortem be more appropriate?"
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PIXIE FIGHT | OTA MEGATHREAD (SHORTLY AFTER "THE LAKE")
If you dare approach, you will be greeted by the sight of two small, winged people in a deadlock over a book. On one hand, there is the form of a faerie some may know as Nightshade, with a heap of vines wrapped around the tome. On the other side, there is a similarly sized boy with wings like shards of ice. Only a few have heard of him as 'the Frost'. His hand is frozen right to the cover of the book.
They are wrestling in the air, Nightshade shrieking angrily and Frost laughing. Despite this, neither of them can get the book away from each other.
"Hrrgh! Let go before I melt you, you dirty flake!" Nightshade hisses, finally attempting to be quiet now that it's far too late. "Void, I am so finished with this quest! Damn them-"
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One of those voices is familiar...
Incredibly familiar, actually.
He looks back, keeping his words low. "...Nightshade," he hisses quietly, carefully reaching for his radio in his bush. One vine coils around-and very carefully, he moves to whisper into the Security channel.
"...Nightshade is here," he says as quietly as he can, moving just slightly to try and get close enough to the bookshelves that he can peer around. "I, the man Gongenzaka, will be holding this line 'open'..."
Which...is all great and good but.
"....This is quite a problem..."
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WILDFIRE | OTA MEGATHREAD (SHORTLY AFTER "PIXIE FIGHT")
While the rest is going on, a certain presence is getting closer and closer to the section of the library the carnival is nested in. He's taking his time. In fact, you can hear a leisurely whistle from not too far off.
With skin as orange as fire and short blond hair like the tips of a flame, Ignatius is presently unarmed. It's no matter, though. He travels through the hall, leaving a trail of footprints burnt into the Athenaeum stone. He's not trying very hard to be stealthy, and he doesn't need to.
Once a wildfire starts, it's very hard to stop.
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Where there's smoke, there's fire and Mr. Weather Spells over here is confident in his ability to put out said fire without the Athenaeum taking much damage. That is, until he runs to the source of the fire and spots Ignatius there, footprints burning into the stone.
"Oh how wonderful!" he complains, frown on his face as he stays back from the flames. This is exceedingly not good. "What the hell are you doing here?"
After all, if tall and flammable's here, this means that Summer Court's probably giving up any attempt at 'being subtle.'
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BREAD AND ROSES | OTA MEGATHREAD (SHORTLY AFTER "WILDFIRE")
Instead, conspicuous vines have begun to coat the passageways, winding around bookshelves and walls alike. Some are thick like tree trunks with thorns as long as your hand, while others are petite and beautiful, with blossoms that shine a brilliant red against the dark. It's almost enough to ward off the shadows, but not quite.
The shade beneath the vines leaves places for creatures to hide. As you step close, you will see them moving - humanoid creatures with thorns sprouting from their limbs, and blooms enveloping their heads. They move slowly but determinedly towards you, climbing over vines on all fours.
If you turn to escape, you'll find them behind you as well.
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Ever since things started to go sour, he's tried to keep himself restricted to the Carnival. His foray into the stacks of books hadn't gone well the first time, and he knows to take a hint from Lady Luck. But when some of his performers had gone missing, notably a certain Steven Universe, well... He wouldn't be much of a supervisor if he didn't try to look.
It's lead to a whole lot of bullshit nothing, however. Bullshit nothing, and far too many vines. He'd made a turn to head right back the other way but, well....
From where he's determinedly perched up on Joker's shoulder, Feathers flares his wings out for intimidation factor, and Joker reaches up with his own still new right hand to tug at the hood of his feathered cloak. His other hand, hidden behind it, fingers at his knife. "If ya can understand me, please take a message ta yer lady-" Because it's always high powered violent ladies, what is with that? Still preferable to the Prince, however, honestly. "-that I'd rather just pass by without any violence. This isn't necessary, is it?"
They definitely can't. He'd just rather not deal with this right now. There are more important things.
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twice in a row, i cri
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HOLDING COURT | OTA MEGATHREAD (SHORTLY AFTER "BREAD AND ROSES")
That is what happens this time. No matter where you were, no matter where you were trying to get, you'll find yourself emerging from the shadows in a darkened room. You can still see the shelves and the high interior walls, but it's as if a filter has been imposed over them, that robs the place of most of its color and suggests darkness while still allowing sight.
At the far side of the room, there is a black throne. Seated within it is a man with dark waves of hair and classically formal attire, boredly reading a book. Very quickly, too, from how rapidly he flips the page.
He barely looks up for you, even as others begin to congregate. Either this is one hell of a coincidence, or this meeting was intentional.
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Still, it's their realm, and they're its rulers. If there are unwanted intruders -- assuming this isn't some damn trick of the place itself, as full of those as it is -- they have the best chance of ejecting them.
All-seeing-shield strapped to his back, sword in hand, Lambert's too busy looking around to see when his foot steps right into darkness ... and steps out somewhere else.
"Ah, fuck." Yeah, that really is all there is to say.
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LATER ON | CLOSED TO STRANGE
Satisfied, he dumps the ash into a pile on the ground. The ash sets aflame, and then seems to move in reverse - burning backwards in time until it has retaken the form of a man called Jonathan Strange.
As it turns out, Strange is also completely naked when he reforms. Hmm.
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Strange blinks as he reforms, looking around the...garden? This is odd. He's got no idea where he is. Ignatius is there but honestly, that doesn't tell him much. Only a second or so after reforming, Strange activates his third eye, to try and see if there's anything magical about his surroundings and just how fucked he is if there is.
And then he accidentally sets himself on fire.
As Strange activates his third eye, fire forms around the burn scars in the shape of an eye. Thankfully, he's immune to his fun new magical eyes but that doesn't change the fact that his hand is now on fire and this is something new and worrying. Give him a moment Ignatius, Strange is just outright panicking over here as he looks around for something to put out said fire. "What the hell is this?!"
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ALSO LATER ON | CLOSED TO JASPER & LAPIS
The location is unclear. From all either will be able to see, it's some sort of underground cavern, about ten meters across and filled with three feet of water. The water seems filled with a strange bioluminescence that casts wavering light against the ceiling. Various water weeds decorate the outer rim of the pool, but otherwise its nothing but smooth stone down below.
Perhaps more notably, they'll also find themselves absent of any appearance modifiers. When they form, they will be only their base physical shapes with no uniforms or dresses to accentuate them.
For the moment, it's just the two of them.
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In fact, she's hardly cognizant of the fact that Jasper is with her at all, too busy inhaling despite the fact that Gems don't even breathe. She's been aware most things for awhile now,on a dull, surface level. Like she was in the mirror, but once she's done catching the breath she doesn't actually need, that's when she looks around, and spots Jasper.
Fearful, she takes a step back, eyes wide.
"Jasper?"
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AND LATER | CLOSED TO ME
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The fear was coming back. Memories of her garden, memories of her and the things she had done to him - visions of the times that she'd held him in her arms as he bled, comforting him even as she was the one hurting him. He's horrified by the reality he's allowed himself to be taken back into, but he still can't seem to make himself move.
Instead, the Rose Queen touches his hair, his face, his gem. She's looking for something inside of him, and it isn't until she mentions the Blue Rose that he understands what. It had been a part of her before, she explains to him, but she'd lost it. To feel it within him, now, brings her such joy.
"Please stop," he finds himself pleading as she produces something between her fingers - a seed, he thinks. He already knows where this goes, and for the first time, his fear overcomes her control, allowing him to struggle against her.
His fingers extend, growing like vines and tangling around her arms, trying to push her away. Both his gem and faerie strength is behind him, but all his resistance does is making her upset. He flaps his wings wildly, he kicks his legs, but it isn't enough. He can't do it.
She takes control of him again, forcing his fingers to retract, her own vines rising up to bind him. She lowers the seed to his chest and then pushes it inside. He starts to cry and she presses her other finger to his lips, shushing him gently.
He loses track of things soon after that, and she leaves. At some point, he passes out.
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BOOK ENDS | CLOSED TO TEAM LAMBERT
It's towards the very edges of the Athenaeum, where empty shelves still lay, that Rita's eyeglass will spy something out of place. Two things out of place, to be exact. She'll see the formless energies of the Curator and the Scribe, floating among half-filled shelves. The Curator restlessly sorts the order of books while the Scribe scribbles into a fresh new tome. Neither have bodies, but she can see the magic within them as it moves.
As the group nears, they'll finally gain the Curator's attention.
"Oh, are you still here?" they ask, blandly.
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That greeting, unsurprisingly, immediately grates on her nerves.
“What do you mean, are we still here!? Don’t you pay any attention to who comes and goes in your realm!?” she snaps.
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I'm still not awake but I couldn't resist
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SUMMER COURT SLAVE DUNGEON | CLOSED TO STRANGE & STEVEN
His body has been changed by whatever she did to him, and his arms and legs look like they belong to someone else. Anything resembling flesh or fur is gone, replaced with a crystal identical to the stem and leaves of the Blue Rose, like the Rose Queen has somehow drawn it out of him by force. Cracks of it are visible all over his body, like the opal filled gaps of fossilized wood. His gem glows blue, and so do his eyes, though he can only tell by the shadows they cast against the earth.
The place in her garden that she keeps him feels as isolated as it was in Portland. Even when she finally frees his limbs from the ground, the vines that used to be his wings are still rooted deeply in the earth, like the Rose Queen's version of a baby leash to keep him from wandering too far.
After a while, she leaves him again, and he tries to explore the outer limits of his prison. Creation is here, tending his wounds and soothing his pain, but he's still so tired. Even trying to think about escaping feels like a monumental effort, but he tries anyway. He tries not to think about what she'll do if she catches him at it.
As he pushes past a ring of thorns, something will ping his attention. He's not the only person within the inner sanctum of the gardens... someone else is here.
"Hello?" he calls out desperately, but he's right at the end of where his 'roots' will allow him to go.
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A few times he's died himself, as the cold steel of a blade pierces his chest or his flesh burns as a different mage sets him on fire. But it never lasts too long: the mental journey he's on shifts and changes and Strange finds himself in one piece, on a new battlefield, against a new foe.
This time is different though. He blinks himself awake to find that he's in a garden. Almost instantly he's on the defensive and scrambles to his feet, fireball in his hand, ready to launch it at whatever foe appears next...before Strange realizes there aren't any foes. There's just someone calling out a bit of a distance away. The fireball still hovers over his hand as Strange walks over towards the voice—which, as he comes out of his mental haze, he recognizes that it's Steven's.
Well. That's not good. Childermass is going to murder them both when this is all done. Strange picks up his pace a little and, fireball still at the ready, makes his way over to Steven. "Steven!" he calls out, "Steven, is that you?"
Aside from his new Roman soldier outfit, Strange looks almost exactly the same as when he got yanked into the inner sanctum. The main difference are the burns and the fact that his expression just looks so tired and tense. And, as he approaches, he can't help but wince a little as he gets a full view of Steven's new look. Good Lord...what did she do to him? There's no use asking if he's okay (because he obviously isn't) so Strange attempts to give Steven a weak little smile. "Is it terrible to say that I'm happy to see a familiar face?"
At least, that he's happy to see a familiar face while not being on the battlefield. Strange still has that fireball hovering above his hand, like he expects to lob it at someone in the next few minutes.
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Deep Dream Diving | Closed to Steven
His dreams are, thankfully, peaceful despite his worries. He's floating underwater without his jacket or pendulum, breathing easily thanks to dream logic--to the point he doesn't realize he shouldn't be able to. The water itself is clear, although it strangely starts turning into stars and nebulas going up to the surface. Yuya isn't so interested in going up, though, instead navigating around colorful coral and schools of fish like he's looking for something.
It's probably a relief to Steven that when he finds himself in the waves nothing will disrupt the sense of safety and peace. There's no danger here.
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His own dreams are dense and hectic, so he pulls away from them as quickly as he can. Then he's out and swimming in the chaotic space between dreams, hoping for something he can connect to. All he knows is that he doesn't want to be out here alone. It feels like something is following him, lurking on the edges of his senses. Like something is trying to pull him back.
Eventually, the swimming becomes more literal. Instead of blackness there's the blue of the ocean, and it feels very familiar, both for good things and bad. He floats there for a while, looking around, before there is a firm tug at his shoulders, like something is trying to draw him upwards. Given the context, the first thing his mind presumes is that he's caught on some kind of fisherman's hook.
From the outside it looks different. Steven is in the water with Yuya, but he looks changed - his body is overrun with crystal-filled cracks, and his limbs have been mutated into something like faceted glass, more similar to roots than to hands. His wings are gone completely, instead just a series of vines that dig into his back and tether him to something above the surface of the water.
He's panicked with the fear of what will follow this, struggling to swim against the pull. In the distance, he thinks he sees someone.
"Help," he tries to say, but it mostly comes out in bubbles. He reaches forward.
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DREAM STUFF closed to Steven
Unfortunately she really isn't having any more success finding peace in her dreams than she was during her waking moments. Steven will not recognize their surroundings as anywhere he has ever been to personally, but the general setup of it is recognizable enough. It's a kindergarten control room, similar to the one from the Prime kindergarten on Earth and yet altogether different. Whereas that room was showing the signs of thousands of years of abandonment, this one is bright and shiny and modern.
It also happens to be going completely haywire. Panels are bursting off the walls in showers of sparks, lights are flashing, alarms are screaming from multiple different directions. And in the middle of all this chaos is a harried looking Peridot. She's absent her usual carnival changes in here, and she's running too and fro with a wild look in her eye, trying to hold everything together. She does not notice Steven right away when he first appears.
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Seeing Peridot there brings a flash of hope to his heart, despite everything.
He tries to run to her, but he's the opposite of her situation - he is very much changed, both from his earth self and also from his carnival self. His root-like feet don't want to let go of the floor, and as he forces himself free, he sends himself sprawling in her direction and knocking her to the floor with him.
The organic parts of his body are filled with cracks that glow an unnatural blue, his arms and legs mostly shifted to something that strikes a balance between plant material and crystal. His eyes and gem share the same glowing hue, most of his pink aspects totally overwhelmed. When he touches her, trying to stabilize himself and to get the two of them up, it feels uncomfortably cold and hot, all at once.
"Peridot," he says, desperate to be understood. "It's me-"
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