⇨ FAERIE TALES

[ringleaders]

Who: Rescue Teams!
When: Day 61
Where: The Athenaeum
What: The carnival goes to get their kidnapped comrades, and use the Athenaeum's magical power of narrative asspulls to guide their way.
Warnings: Two out of three of the fae here are deeply unclean.

TELL YOUR STORY↴ Five of you have been lost, and it's time to get them back. Below, we will be threading the encounter threads one at a time. Put on your best improv hat and feel free to join in.

Comments

[osteothropy]

Sans hits the ground with a clatter. It takes a bit for him to pick himself up, being careful not to squash any of the people that were hanging onto his bones. Well, that was some wild shit.

Though it would have been nice to see what actually happened after he blasted the Lady of the Lake like that. He's pretty sure he hit, but to what end?

Getting back onto all fours, he sighs and then shakes himself dry - right on top of everyone else.

[worldlyafflictions]

Too busy spitting out all that water that potion let him "breathe" to care about getting sprinkled more.

[scientificist]

In this trying and wet time, Herbert doesn't even have the sweet fire wings any more to soothe himself. Also, he can't clean his glasses because everything he has on him right now is drenched. He sits up, pulls them off of his face and shakes them furiously by the arms before putting them back on, anyway. May as well make the attempt.

He'll be so irritated if this ruins a second suit.

"We should all, go to the medical tent," he points out, and rolls to shove himself up onto his feet. "Especially Lapis. And Jasper." He squints at the orange gem in Peridot's hand. Is she ok or.... It was just light, right? He assumes she reforms somehow?

[textsfromhotland]

Alphys is jammed in between two of Sans' ribs when the water bubble collapses, and his shaking doesn't quite knock her loose, so on top of almost drowning, now she's being shaken wildly. She doesn't remember which way is up.

"Oh my god, am I dead?"

[mirrortide]

Lapis, for her part, just sort of. Slumps, from her bad landing, into the ground a little more. Idly, she can hear Peridot call her name, and she lifts herself to look in the direction of the other gem.

"Hi."

She definitely seems. A little spooked.

[periphrasing]

Yeah Peridot doesn't care that she looks spooked. She's going to keep on nyooming over there, not even really acknowledging the water that Sans is cascading down onto everyone, or Herbert's insistence that they move to the medical tent. Lapis is getting that fucking hug that she should have given her a few days ago, after that conversation out in the athenaeum.

She barrels right into Lapis, and throws her arms around her.

[mirrortide]

Lapis' face kind of scrunches as Peridot launches herself at her, and her skin ripples like water where the contact is made. She doesn't hug her back, but her eyes start watering.

And then she sniffs and makes a choked noise, like she's trying to keep from crying herself. She lasts this way for only a few seconds before she caves, and her arms fly up to cling to Peridot in return, clutching the smaller Gem against her body as tight as she can.

[worldlyafflictions]

Done scrubbing water from his face and now trying to ruffle the water out of his own hair as he watches these gems cry on each other from a ways away.

"Hhhaah... well, that was almost fun.."

[periphrasing]

Peridot fails to notice the rippling effect, or the fact that Lapis is presently naked. She's preoccupied with clinging to Lapis, the both of them sitting there crying in the mud together while Peridot babbles at a breakneck pace.

"I'm so sorry, I heard you were in trouble on the radio and I tried to come to you but I didn't make it in time--"

It's just going to keep going on. Like that.

[textsfromhotland]

Alphys finally slips out from between Sans' ribs and lands in a puddle with an undignified splash, but she doesn't care, because she's watching Peridot and Lapis with rapt attention. She ships it.

[scientificist]

"Can we please do this in the Medical Tent!?" Herbert finally says, loudly. "We have no idea what that Lady did to, those two women and I would prefer to start that examination as well as treat this entire, fighting party while you two reunite instead of all of us just standing here!" He makes a big, sideways shooing gesture with both of his arms. "You can hug as much as you want once we're there."

[osteothropy]

Sans watches Alphys squeeze out of his ribs, vaguely lifting a leg to accommodate her doing so. He hadn't actually realized she was still there when shaking, whoops.

Most importantly, though, it seems like he has a chance to make everyone shut up, at least for a little while. With a rumble, he moves towards Lapis and Peridot.

Without any interruptions, he'll teleport the gems and Herbert to the med tent. A moment later he'll disappear and then bring the rest with him in a second trip. He wavers just a little bit after doing so.

"Everybody good?" he asks, but he isn't really looking for an answer. "Cool. I'm crashing here."

He loudly flops onto the ground next to the tent, curling up to sleep.

[periphrasing]

It's a good thing Sans does something because Peridot looks about ready to bite Herbert's head off when he interrupts. Like, she opens her mouth to say something nasty, and then this big ol' skeleton wolf is moving towards them and totally derails her train of thought."

"Wha--"

Bwip. And suddenly they're in the medical tent. ALRIGHT THEN? She's been so worried, why can't you people just let her have this moment!? Peridot clings a little tighter to Lapis, and resumes scowling at Herbert, deciding to lay off Sans and just let sleeping bone-wolves lie for the time being.

"Do you mind just giving us a moment?!" she snaps. "It's not like there's a whole lot you can do for them anyway! Jasper was just destabilized, I have her gem right here, so we can just set her aside until she decides to refor--"

Peridot doesn't finish the rest of that thought, because when she holds the gem in question up for Herbert to see, she finally catches sight of the nick in it, and her eyes bug out in horror.

[mirrortide]

Peridot isn't the only one who catches the sight of the nick in Jasper's gem, but Lapis, apparently, is the first to react verbally. "Jasper!?" Forget crying, Lapis feels just downright awful now. Like, she felt awful but relieved before, now it's just circled back around to awful.

It's her fault Jasper is like this. She wasn't fast enough to grab Jasper in time.

Lapis covers her mouth in horror.

[textsfromhotland]

Alphys has approximately five million questions for Sans, but he falls asleep before she can open her mouth. Well, fine, she also has five million questions for the gems, and they're still awake. Mostly.

She squints at the orange gem, unable to see anything different about it, because even if she wanted to study the giant's nose in any detail, she doubts Jasper would have let her. "Is...s-something wrong?"

[stompadour]

As if on cue, the damage to Jasper's gem shifts and expands. Clock's tickin'!

[periphrasing]

"H-her gem is. Damaged," Peridot stammers, as if that explains anything. Jasper's gem is cupped in her hands now, held it up for closer inspection, when the crack worsens. Peridot leans back and sucks in a breath through her teeth, quickly moving her hands around it in an odd motion; a translucent green bubble forms around it, with the gem suspended in the perfect center.

"I-- I don't know what to do," she stammers in a small voice, glancing around helplessly at the group.

[mirrortide]

"Steven can help." Lapis pipes up, very suddenly. "He healed my Gem when it was cracked, remember? Where is he-? Does anyone have a radio?" She's suddenly frantic, and she gets to her feet.

Guess what! Lapis doesn't know about what happened to Steven!

[scientificist]

Sans is thankfully better at herding cats (and teleportation) than Herbert. He's about to let Peridot know that he does mind, actually, because the world doesn't revolve around Peridot and her emotions--and then apparently something is wrong with Jasper?

Walking forward a little to try and get the same angle on it as the two other gems have, he just manages to notice the flaw in time for it to get worse, and for Peridot to create a bubble around it.

"Steven was also kidnapped," explains Herbert, "he's also being rescued right now--does that...bubble, pause the damage?"

[periphrasing]

And now you know why Peridot is so extra freaked out, Lapis.

"I don't know!" she squeaks in response. "I've seen it used to put gems into a kind of stasis to keep them from reforming, but I have no idea if it will delay shattering or not!"

THIS IS LITERALLY THE SECOND BUBBLE SHE'S EVER MADE.

[mirrortide]

"Steven's what!?" Lapis is now significantly less invested in Peridot and Jasper, mostly because Peridot is fine, and for Jasper to be fine, Steven needs to be fine.

"Then what are we doing here? We need to go save him!" Why didn't they save him first?

[scientificist]

"He's being saved," Herbert repeats, loudly. "It's under control--and for all we know...you've had something put into your mind by the fae and swooping out to save Steven will just make things worse! Sit down on a cot and..." He turns back to Peridot specifically and advances a bit more to frown more effectively at the gem.

"Do your people not have any methods for healing gems?" That seems like an oversight to him, honestly, if true. A lack of appropriate research. "Bring her over here and I'll see what I can do," he says, beckoning as he heads into the tent, grabbing a towel as he goes to fold and set it on a low table, patting it demonstratively after. "De-bubble her."

[periphrasing]

Peridot would counter that but, Herbert doesn't actually sound like he's looking for an answer, and now seems like a bad time to get into the whole 'if we do have a method for healing I'm not privy to it because on Homeworld sometimes broken gems just aren't worth the trouble of fixing' conversation. She just pops the bubble and places Jasper carefully down on the towel.

[stompadour]

Almost as soon as she's set down on the towel, Jasper's gem starts to glow and rise into the air.

A few seconds later she's fully reformed, and she falls back to the ground and crushes the table.

She winces. "Rrgh -- what --"

She tries to push herself back to her feet, except that both of her feet have reformed as hands.

[worldlyafflictions]

"Oh hey, she's... mmostly fine?" Glancing down at those... fhands..