lostcarnival | ⇨ DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS

A crow appears out of nowhere and directly assaults Jasper's gem.

"Don't—"

Or do. Sure, whatever, go ahead and get killed, Jasper. Childermass, for his part, is staying back, quashing the urge to immediately grab the iron knives he has hidden away in his belt.

"Good God, woman, are you stupid?"

Leaning tiredly forward, limping and charred, one hand reaching up on Jasper's back so as to keep her ahead of him, Herbert grumbles and peers around her side when she comes to an abrupt stop.

He makes a sighing, dismayed sound like nnnnnuuuuhhhhfffmmf and ducks back behind Jasper--just before she goes charging forward and he tips down onto the floor.

Great! Today is great! He loves Jasper! He loves libraries.

"You think I don't know that?" Lambert eyes the Count as he gives Childermass the once-over, unconsciously shifting his feet to a more fight-ready stance. He notes the other arrivals in the room, but is the Count really just planning on sitting there? He doesn't trust it.

... and then witcher reflexes are no match for the speed of gem stupidity, apparently. Lambert doesn't get a chance to do anything else but respond to Childermass before someone's already hurtling themselves at the Count, and is immediately met with an attack in turn. Well, fuck that then. He's going to use the time to get to Childermass's side, since if anything else is coming, he might as well be close enough to slice it up for him.

Jasper shouts and swats at it angrily with her huge orange hands, but she's forced to take a few steps back before she's able to get a grip on it -- she holds onto it firmly, glares at it, and then glares at the Count, baring all her identical rectangular teeth.

"What do you want!" She's so tired of this nonsense! She just wants to locate Lapis!

Shouting is the opposite of what they want. Childermass's attention flies from Jasper to the Count again and then back to the big green dragon still known as Peridot.

"Peridot, control your friend before she gets us killed," he snaps, fear not so much shifting to irritation as just fueling it all the more.

The dragon has mostly just been watching this all unfold with widened eyes, pupils narrowed to vertical slits.

Childermass's comment, oddly enough, is what brings something close to sapience back into it's expression.

She charges forward and.... snaps her jaws around Jasper's mane of hair, yanking her backwards.

"She is NOT my friend," she snarls through gritted teeth, because yeah, she can't just leave THAT alone. And then to Jasper: "And YOU... That's a high fae, you CLOD!"

Sans emerges from the shadows with a cacophonous rattle. Not the small, skeleton man Sans. The huge as hell skeleton dog Sans.

He's been running around for what feels like hours now, and this has just caught him totally off guard. Unfortunately, skeleton dog Sans isn't very good at emoting, so he just kind of stares around the room in shock with all seven eyes looking equally stunned.

Then he zeroes in on the Count, a softer rattle going through his throat. Oh boy.

Jasper is about to say something ridiculous like 'I've never had a friend in my life, how dare you,' but then Peridot grabs her by the hair, making her let go of the crow, which promptly returns to doing its best to prise her gem off her face.

"AUGH," she snarls, smacking it away with such indignant force that it smacks against the wall and is reduced to smoke.

"I don't care what she is," she snaps, "I'm not going to just stand here while she reads!"

The dragon lets go of her hair, but. Only to headbutt her. In the butt. "Jasper just SHUT UP and let the rest of us handle this!" she snaps in a low voice. "That's an order!"

"I mean, she did break a magical boar's neck with her bare hands," Lambert mutters. "Maybe we should let her try."

But smartass comments or not, his eyes are on the count, though he's a little surprised when the Warden skids in, too. That makes four of the supervisors in this room now, which is either a really good thing, or a really bad one.

"I don't think the Winter Court is really into light reading." He eyes the book, but its probably too much to hope he can read its title from here. The last time he saw the Count, he hadn't exactly been himself, so there's exactly zero useful knowledge he can have to speculate on what brings him here, except the surety that it's something self-serving.

Edited 2018-05-16 02:37 (UTC)

Finally, the book is snapped closed. Dismissively tossing it to the side, the Count lifts his head to address everyone for the first time since they entered. His voice is a low drawl, displaying some amount of disinterest in the hijinx currently unfolding.

"Welcome to my Elysium," he says, leaning back in his chair. "I've brought you here so that you might plead your case. In a matter of speaking."

On the tops of shelves and beneath every shadow, the eyes, feathers, and beaks of crows can be seen, lurking. It's almost as if the darkness itself is comprised of them.

Edited 2018-05-16 02:42 (UTC)

Since Peridot had dragged Jasper away, Childermass had fallen into watching the Count intently again. Waiting, almost hoping he would just carry on ignoring them and maybe, just maybe they could walk away, back through the shadows. Tough luck, apparently.

So, of course, he steps forward when the Count announces that. The glittering eyes watching all around them from the shelves are infinitely less intimidating than the man on the throne, meaning Childermass ignores them for now. He's used to them... or was used to them. Either or.

"Our case for what?"

Edited 2018-05-16 02:44 (UTC)

"--gyah!"

That causes at least one more to stumble out of the shadows, the 'invisibility' he'd pulled over himself on reflex dropping now, as hiding in the shadows becomes even more harrowing than it was.

Jasper growls under her breath, glowering fiercely at Peridot. She wants to make demands, but... Peridot, unfortunately, is a Supervisor. They're practically all Supervisors. Letting everyone else handle this is basically her only option.

She is so mad.

And by hiding behind Shima, Rin figured he would be obscured, too. It kind of worked. Or maybe it didn't. But it doesn't actually matter, because Shima has made himself known.

".... Gyaaaah! Are these... are these shadow birds?!"

Crows. Shadow crows.

"... The Count!! Oh no!"

"Shut up, both of you shut up!" Peridot hisses urgently, baring her teeth at both Rin and Shima. She's torn between scolding them and keeping her eyes on Childermass, who she really, really hopes that he knows what he's doing.

"I see I spoke too soon," the Count says, clearly unimpressed. He regards Shima and Rin with the mildest of irritation before looking to his son, the only person to ask a sensible question thus far.

"You have found yourself in the middle of a battle between Courts... perhaps for the second time. The question is, what will you do about it?"

"Leave?" Herbert mutters hoarsely--if hopefully--from the floor.

Sorry, Peridot, he doesn't so he's just playing it all by ear. They're probably doomed.

"We would go on our way, I think, out of your way," Childermass answers honestly, at least. He looks back towards the rest, frowning at Shima and Rin as they stumble in, though less out anger and more out of adding them to this entire consideration.

"These ones, at least, are owned by a fae unaligned with either Court. They are better left to their master."

Why bother with someone else's tools, right?

"Ask her about Lapis," Jasper says to Peridot in an urgent whisper.

Sans isn't very good at talking in this form, so he will get his point across with a huge, doggy style facepalm.

Peridot is literally opening her mouth to say something about Lapis, when. Jasper tells her to ask about Lapis.

This pisses her off more than words can possibly describe.

She finally changes out of her dragon guise, seeing no need (for the time being) to keep exerting herself by casting that particular spell. When she comes back to her regular form, she... well. She looks like shit. She's exhausted and beat up, but she still takes a stubborn step forward, eyeing the Count warily. "One of your court stole my best friend," she says, voice cracking. She looks petrified. "I'm not going anywhere until I get her back."

"And yet," he says, "You have all been observed aiding the Ringmaster in her attempt to collect weapons of war. That hardly sounds like the actions of uninvolved parties."

He looks at Peridot for a few moments afterward, processing her words.

"So, I ask you again: what are you doing to do about it?"

Childermass is momentarily distracted, glancing back at Peridot. Lapis was what now? Another Winter fae is around? Which means the Count may already have one of their own-- or are they their own creature, unaffiliated?

"We do as we are told," he makes that case instead, turning back to the Count. "Which includes searching a library, that is true. If you wish to know what the Ringmaster intends, though, you will need to ask her, not us."

There's a brief pause after that, followed by an addition, Childermass repeating Peridot's question, just in another way.

"Both Courts are here beyond only yourself, aren't they? Has another faerie of Winter taken one of our people?"

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