⇨ DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS

[ringleaders]

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.

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?

Comments

[starseedling]

He knows she's right. He hasn't really been thinking critically about any of this, at least until she points it out for him. It just felt natural to say, somehow - he did the same for Rose Quartz, who he'd never really know and who had also mostly just left him with a truckload of problems rather than anything helpful or nurturing.

They're both more mythical figures to him than they are people. The Rose Queen is even worse, so why does he feel so attached to the idea of acknowledging their connection?

The Rose Queen doesn't care about who he is outside of his connection to her, just like so many gems don't care about who he is outside of Rose Quartz. The parallels in Portland were so strong... maybe that's why its been so hard to shake. When he first saw the Rose Queen again, he'd felt like she would look after him, somehow. And now this is the result?

"I don't know why I feel this way," he says, hugging his arms as he glances up to Peridot and tries to meet her gaze, even though it's hard. "I know she doesn't care about... anything about me, that isn't hers. I just didn't think it... mattered..."

[periphrasing]

Peridot frowns at him, and sighs softly at the last statement, tilting her head back to stare at the ceiling of her dreamscape for a second while she thinks.

Actually... now that she's really taking a moment to acknowledge her surroundings, she decides she really doesn't want to be having this conversation in one of her depressing old stations back on Homeworld. And with that thought, the scenery shifts: Peridot takes that same mastery over her own mind that basically gave her superpowers all the way back in the Matrix, and uses it to force a location change to somewhere more pleasant. The kindergarten control room seems to melt away in seconds, while the warm and familiar space of the barn emerges in it's place, like a secondary set that has been hidden behind another backdrop this whole time.

"Sorry, that was really bothering me. Anyway..." she huffs, settling back as soon as she's finished. She's back to giving Steven a weird Look, her head cocked slightly to one side as she considers what he just said. "I think it does matter, unfortunately. I... Ugh. Look, this is just a theory, but, hear me out: One of the things that happened not too long after you were taken was... we ran into the Count of Crows. A whole bunch of absolutely insane garbage happened that I can try to get into in a moment, but what's important to this topic at hand is that the Count tried to use... Nnngh. Something called a bloodbond? To make Childermass surrender himself, so he could hand him over to the Rose Queen. I don't really understand exactly how that works, but, if the Rose Queen has the same sort of power over you..."

She pauses to grumble wordlessly for a second, trying to figure out how to put this delicately. "I just... don't think it helps your ability to resist her thrall if you yourself keep lending further credit to this narrative she has crafted that you're her son! Do you get what I'm saying? Your name isn't Steven Rose Queen, it's STEVEN QUARTZ UNIVERSE, and she's just some cracked up fae that the cruel and unknowable multiverse happened to slap you with while trying to find a place to put you in a universe where none of us belonged!"

[starseedling]

Steven had been mostly ambivalent to the previous surroundings, because with everything else going on it didn't seem to matter. The barn setting, however, is actively a comfort. He wishes he could go to sleep here, even if he's always sleeping somewhere else.

To hear that about Childermass isn't totally surprising, but it does confirm something he was already afraid of. He didn't know before if the Rose Queen was just using standard fae enchantments, or if there was something wrong with him in particular that made him vulnerable to her swap. This seems to be confirm that it's the latter. He tries to take that in.

"She's been doing something like that to me," he admits, warily. "Whenever I try to fight her, all she has to do is just... look at me, and I can't." He puts his hands to his face. "...When I tried to talk to her, to lure her away from the others... I was going to run, but... I ended up wanting to go with her. I didn't understand what happened..."

[periphrasing]

"So it's like a compulsion," Peridot observes, rubbing her chin thoughtfully (something that she can no longer easily do in real life, thanks fuck-off huge claws).

She pauses to wince and grind her teeth for a moment with frustration, that familiar caustic hatred for the fae boiling up in her gut. She can't stand that they can do this to people, that Steven is having to put up with this kind of treatment.

"I know it can be resisted," Peridot says with confidence, punching one hand down into her open palm. "Childermass couldn't resist it completely but, he hesitated long enough that Rin and Shima were able to do something to knock him out, and then Lambert and Sans and I got him away. Maybe if you know going in and you... I don't know... Convince yourself to deny the strength of that blood connection?"

Maybe she's on the right track, but THAT part she sounds less confident about. Even coming out of her own mouth it sounds like a load of sentimental tripe.

[starseedling]

"I think... maybe I do, sometimes, but... when I can't get away from her she just keeps pushing until I mess up," he says. Not that he's been thinking about it in a denying the blood connection kind of way, though. But, the longer it goes on, the less energy he has to try.

"I'm really glad Mr Childermass is okay," he says, smiling faintly, despite everything. "I was really worried that maybe... all of this would be happening to him, too."

He's quiet again for a little while longer.

"...Thanks for being honest with me, Peridot. Maybe... I needed to hear that. Maybe it will help."

[periphrasing]

Peridot momentarily considers telling him that it wouldn't be happening to Childermass, because Steven's 'mom' would have straight up murdered him by now, but she decides against that course of action, thankfully.

His other words make her smile, though. She still looks sad, and worried, but she really hopes that it does help. "It's going to be okay, Steven," she says, and puts both hands on his shoulders despite how uncomfortable it is. "We'll figure something out to save you, we-- We're going to get you all back. And I know you can fight her, being a rebel is your thing! You're a crystal gem!"

And that's about as much touching as she can stand to deal with, and withdraws again. They may have limited time here in this dreamspace, and she feels like they should take care of exchanging information while they still can. "You're still warded against the Rose Queen, right? Remind me how that works, exactly?"

[starseedling]

Steven finds himself getting choked up again, but at least it's in a good way this time. The display of support is much needed, and it makes him emotional to think about people trying to help him despite how dangerous it is. He wibbles a little, appreciatively, before trying to balance himself enough to respond. He nods decisively before going on.

"I... think I am? It was supposed to make it so she couldn't sense me from a distance... and it seemed like it was working. It only stopped working when I walked up to her and got her attention. Normally... she would have been able to feel that I was close, even if she couldn't see me."

He has to pause to think about it.

"...I don't know if it will start working again, if I get away from her."